Hand Tool Purist Refuses to Use Electricity, Lights Workshop With Beeswax Candles

Hand-tool woodworking enthusiast Martin Spofford, 52, has completed the removal of all electrical equipment from his garage workshop, including power tools, fluorescent lighting, and the automatic garage door opener, in pursuit of what he describes as 'a fully authentic pre-industrial woodworking experience.' 'Stickley didn't have a table saw,' Spofford said, gesturing around his candle-lit workshop, where a dozen beeswax tapers cast flickering light across a collection of antique hand planes arranged by date of manufacture. 'Chippendale didn't have a random orbital sander. If they could produce masterworks by hand and by candlelight, I can certainly build a spice rack.' Spofford's commitment to pre-industrial methods extends beyond tool selection. He mixes his own hide glue from rabbit pellets, sharpens his tools on natural Arkansas stones he personally quarried during a 'pilgrimage to the Ouachitas,' and has replaced his workbench's modern vise with a wooden face vise he built from plans in a Roubo reproduction dated 1769. 'The Roubo text specifies beech for the screw,' Spofford noted. 'I used beech. It took me six weeks to thread it by hand. A metal screw would have taken an afternoon, but a metal screw would have required a mine, a foundry, and the Industrial Revolution, and I'm not prepared to endorse any of those.' The candlelight has presented challenges. Spofford's most recent project — a Shaker-style step stool — features what he acknowledges is 'slightly asymmetric joinery,' which he attributes to 'the authentic variability of working in ambient illumination consistent with the 18th century.' His wife has noted that the garage door now requires manual operation, adding approximately four minutes to her morning commute. 'Four minutes is a small price for ideological consistency,' Spofford said, planing a board by candlelight. 'Although I'll admit the fire marshal has concerns.'