By Amy Paradysz

Few of us are so exceptional at something that we could be considered not just a master of it but the master of it. But it’s fair to say that Christian Becksvoort—or C.H. Becksvoort, as he’s known professionally—has that when it comes to Shaker-style furniture.

When I stopped by his woodshop this summer, he had three projects in progress: A large Shaker-style shoe cabinet for his wife Peggy, who loves shoes. A chair for actor (and woodworker) Nick Offerman, who once gushed about Becksvoort on an episode of Parks and Recreation. And a coat rack awaiting assembly and oiling, which Becksvoort planned to complete during a Fine Woodworking photo shoot.

“Who’s the coat rack for?” I asked.

“The joy is in the making,” he said, with a shrug.

What an extraordinarily Shaker-like outlook, from a man who is not Shaker—or religious at all—but who is often referred to in the niche worlds of fine furniture and woodworking as “the Shaker guy.”

At 75, Becksvoort has hand-built more than 977 unique pieces of furniture—he last updated the count in 2022 when he planned to retire but just stopped taking new clients. That coat rack was for his 89th article for Fine Woodworking, where he has shared techniques and project plans as a contributing editor since 1989. He’s written three books on wood, craftsmanship and Shaker furniture— including The Shaker Legacy (Taunton Press, 1998)—and has tattoos of a chisel, a dovetail saw, a hand plane and a Shaker peg.

The story of how Becksvoort became “the Shaker guy” begins as a young child in Germany, where his father spent seven years apprenticing under a master cabinetmaker. The family moved to Maryland when Christian was 6, and even as a boy he loved to make things from wood—just not necessarily under the exacting tutelage of his father. As soon as Christian was old enough to choose his own path, he went to the University of Maine at Orono, where he studied forestry, majored in wildlife management, and took courses in wood technology and architectural appreciation.

It would be easy to assume that the Maine connection was what led Becksvoort to the Shaker style, given that the last active Shaker community in existence is at Sabbathday Lake in New Gloucester. But, no—a Shaker furniture exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1974 captured his attention.

“I must have gone back five or six times to view those things,” says Becksvoort, who would eventually have the chance to reproduce a few of those pieces in his shop.

The Shaker exhibit reminded him of the Danish modern furniture of his childhood in Maryland. “Back in the 1930s, a Shaker chair found its way to Denmark, where people thought it was the coolest thing,” Becksvoort explains. “They had models made and plans drawn up. Then in 1937, when Edward Deming Andrews’ book Shaker Furniture came out, they realized it was a Shaker piece. So they sent a bunch of guys to Hancock, which was a Shaker community in western Massachusetts, where they saw trestle tables and chairs and wonderful built-ins. They took notes, went back to Denmark and cleaned the designs up a bit and put curvier edges on them. And they sold those as Danish modern. That’s what I grew up with—simple, mostly solid wood.”

Both styles are utilitarian, clean, and—as the Shakers might say—honest. Becksvoort had found his calling. But, before he opened his own shop, he got some more experience, working for a Portland-area cabinetmaker and later for an architectural millwork shop.

“When I showed up on the job the first day, there were 2,000 board feet of rough white oak and a stack of blueprints,” he says. “I had to make 64 doors, and 50 of them were different patterns. There were arched doors, paneled doors and doors with glass, and different thicknesses. I learned a lot about problem-solving doing historic restoration.”

Those problem-solving skills served him well a couple years later when he and Peggy bought a seven-room dump of a house and 25 acres for $20,000. “There was no plumbing and no outhouse,” he laughs.

The Becksvoorts salvaged nothing but the frame, the siding and the enormous old Glenwood stove still at the center of the kitchen. And there, miles from anything on a dirt road in New Gloucester, they raised a family—a son who works on tugboats in Portland and a daughter who works at L.L.Bean—and C.H. Becksvoort built a workshop, a showroom and a name for himself.

One of the first things he did in New Gloucester, though, was to visit the Shaker neighbors eight miles away at Sabbathday Lake and offer to help with furniture repairs.

“Sister Mildred didn’t know what to make of me,” he says. “A young man, married and obviously not there for the religion.” Then one day, he fixed and reupholstered her over-upholstered but comfortable rocking chair (“Shaker” only by virtue of its owner). That was the start of his lifelong relationship with the Shaker community, repairing classic Shaker furniture and closely inspecting how it was made to preserve and share those techniques.

Since opening his own business in 1986, Becksvoort has built up a catalog of more than 50 customizable items— cabinets, chests, bookcases, shelves, tables, chairs, beds, clocks, chandeliers, candle holders, music stands, sleighs and even coffins. There are Shaker reproductions, Shaker-inspired original designs and original riffs off Danish modern. With few exceptions, everything is cherry, which Becksvoort sources from Kane Hardwoods in Pennsylvania.

“It has a beautiful color, is available sustainably harvested and is strong enough for table chairs and bed posts,” he says. “It’s fairly well behaved, compared to, say, oak or maple, and it’s not as soft as pine or poplar. And when you’re working with predominantly one species, you can use any leftovers, and get to know it on a first-name basis. Working with the same stuff for almost 50 years now, I can pretty much predict what it’s going to do. Not always; it’s an organic material, and once in a while it will throw you a curve.”

That there’s always a challenge, even half a century or more into his career, seems to give him a little thrill. That’s the same reason that he never makes exactly the same thing twice—unless it’s a chair, because, to his dismay, people like those in matching sets. Anything larger than, say, a chair or a music stand, is built with a secret compartment hiding a silver dollar minted the year the piece was made. Only the builder and the buyer are privy to the location.

While each piece in the showroom could be described as a work of art, the beauty is in the natural color and shine of the wood and the attention to quality.

“That was the Shakers’ outlook as well,” he says. “The building process—every act—was part of their religious experience. Shaker furniture is intended to outlast me and you. That little 15-drawer chest has 296 hand-cut dovetails and 168 pieces of wood, and it took me 150 hours. The drawer knobs are graduated by 50/1000 of an inch from 5/8 at the top to 7/8 at the bottom, by hand. That’s craftsmanship.”

After Becksvoort broke a wrist in 2022, he announced his retirement and took down the road signs that had for decades directed prospective customers to the quite off-the-beaten-path C.H. Becksvoort Furniture. But as soon as he was able, he picked up his tools again.

A fan of even numbers, Becksvoort says maybe he’ll get to 1,000 pieces. Or 100 Fine Woodworking articles. Or a fourth book. The numbers don’t really matter, though. It’s the lifetime of pursuing, perfecting and sharing his craft, working with his hands and building things that people love and pass down.

The joy is in the making.

This article appeared in the Fall 2024 edition of Green & Healthy Maine HOMES. Subscribe today!

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