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Society of American Period Furniture Makers
For anyone interested in American furniture — the tools, the people, the history.

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The knowledge in this craft lives in scattered people, and not enough of it gets written down. SAPFM gathers both — at chapter meetings, at the annual conference, on the pages of the journal and the magazine — so the work sharpens with practice and the record of how American furniture is made, and was made, thickens behind us.

Come learn See member work →
Marion Smith mahogany chest, 2024 Cartouche recipient Federal card table by Michelle Hallee Wong SAPFM members at Working Wood, Colonial Williamsburg Bentside spinets by Steven Lash Annual Conference, Colonial Williamsburg 2022 Painted chest by Daniel Schwank Phil Lowe teaching at North Bennet Street School Bob Lang chapter demonstration
Marion Smith · 2024 Cartouche recipientMahogany chest of drawers, Philadelphia school
Michelle Hallee WongFederal card table
SAPFM members at Working WoodColonial Williamsburg, in the room where the Society was founded
Steven LashBentside spinets, hand-built and tuned
Annual Conference · Williamsburg 2022Bench demonstrations and the Cartouche banquet
Daniel SchwankPainted chest in the New England tradition
Phil Lowe at North Bennet Street SchoolTeaching the next generation
Bob Lang · chapter demonstrationWhere members gather between conferences
Recent Cartouche Award recipients

Twenty-five years of lifetime achievement.

APF 2024 cover, Marion Smith
2024Marion Smith
APF 2023 cover, Daniel Faia
2023Daniel Faia
APF 2022 cover, Chuck Bender
2022Chuck Bender
APF 2021 cover, David Lamb
2021David Lamb
APF 2020 cover, Tony Kubalak
2020Tony Kubalak

On the bench this month

Updated monthly
From Pins & Tales · Fall 2025

Art Deco Jewelry Cabinet

By Dennis Zongker (Nebraska). Macassar Ebony with American Holly inlay — the cabinet that made the editor catch his breath.

Dennis Zongker Art Deco jewelry cabinet, Macassar Ebony with American Holly inlay

Inspired by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, the French cabinetmaker who carried Art Deco's most rigorous version into the late 1930s. Zongker's piece pulls the same vocabulary into a working maker's shop — segmented Macassar Ebony, American Holly diamond inlay across the doors, twenty-four interior drawers in soft curly maple.

The article walks through the leg-inlay sequence (32 holly pieces per leg, cut at 22½° on a sled with a custom jig), the lap-corner joinery Zongker chose in place of dovetails for the small interior drawers, and the marquetry on the door interiors — roses with butterflies, stylized in the Art Deco style.

Read the article →
From the video archive

Bob Lang on drawing for the bench

42 minutes · chapter markers

Bob Lang at the SketchUp screen

One of thirty-six videos in the SAPFM archive. Chapter markers let you jump to specific demonstrations.

Watch the layout chapter (3:42) →
From a chapter meeting

Peach State, last Saturday

Fifteen members, working session on hand-cut dovetails, hosted in a member's shop near Atlanta. Next meeting: June 1, joinery study group, same shop.

See what other chapters are up to →

Twenty-two chapters. Through the year.

Find your chapter →
Chapter Last met Next meeting
CarolinasApr 27May 25 — pole lathes, member's shop
FloridaMay 4Jun 1 — finishing demo
Gulf StateApr 20May 18 — joinery study group
Mid-South— between leads —
New England (North)May 3Jun 7 — Phil Lowe library tour
New England (South)Apr 13May 11 — chair-bottom weaving
New YorkApr 12May 10 — Met study trip
Peach StateMay 4Jun 1 — hand-cut dovetails
PhiladelphiaApr 19May 17 — Federal card table layout
PittsburghApr 26May 24 — Workshop visit
Western ReserveMay 3Jun 7 — TBA
11 more chapters · full directory →
Annual Conference · October 2026

Williamsburg, four days, one chair to fill.

The 2026 Annual Conference returns to Colonial Williamsburg the week of October [dates]. Bench demonstrations, member presentations, a tour of the Anthony Hay cabinet shop with Kaare Loftheim, the Cartouche Award presentation, and the long evenings between sessions where most of the actual work happens.

Registration opens [date]. See last year's program →

Est. 1999

A note on how this started.

Two makers — Steve Lash and Mickey Callahan — sat at the same table at the Working Wood in the 18th Century conference in Williamsburg, January 1999. By the end of the year, SAPFM was incorporated. Twenty-five years on: twenty-two chapters, two journals, a national conference each summer, and the quiet network underneath it all.

Read our history →

The tools, the people, the history.

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