Anderson Design Woodcrafting Crafts from the Heart
Years ago, when David Anderson was a college student trying to figure out what to do with his life, he had one of life’s sudden “aha” moments.
“I was an undergraduate thinking of teaching mathematics but the teacher I was observing was dreadfully uninspiring. I was encouraged to try something else,” he explains. He chose to observe the woodworking craft he had grown up with. “As I walked through the door of the woodshop, it hit me like a bolt of lightning. This is what I should do.”
Soon afterward, Anderson was back home, heading for the woodshop where he had spent many happy hours as a boy building things, the same shop his father had built for his own woodworking hobby.
After earning an industrial education degree from Oregon State University in 1977, Anderson began a 30-year career teaching, primarily woodworking. He thoroughly enjoyed teaching, but he found even more fulfillment in developing his design and woodworking skills on the side. His personal woodworking also inspired his students.
“I designed and built commissioned pieces for folks on the weekends and during the summer. I found it to be an addictive passion partially fueled by the heightened interest and availability of information on crafts that began during the mid-1970s,” he says.
Chuckling, Anderson says, “People identified me as a teacher who did woodworking on the side. But I was really a woodworker who taught.”
When we spoke with him in 2016, Anderson had retired from teaching, but his passion for woodworking and for creating designs that express what’s in his heart continued unabated. Unlike some woodworkers who make a living building what other people want, Anderson designs and makes the things he feels compelled to make.
Teaching gave him that freedom, since his income didn’t depend on his woodworking. Over the years, he’s made many distinctive pieces of furniture. At the time of our interview, his focus was dining room furniture.
His dining sets are fully functional, but they can also be described as poetic and pleasing to the eye. Consider his dining chairs. The front legs flow gracefully from the floor to join the back legs at the crest, so each side of the chair forms a distinctive wishbone shape.
Anderson’s chairs are strong and unusually comfortable. People often say they enjoy sitting in them because, unlike most dining chairs, they provide substantial lumbar support.
Most of Anderson’s pieces are made of black walnut, his wood of choice. But he’s also worked with oak, ash, and even Douglas-fir.
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A Lesson Learned: Moisture Level Matters
Anderson learned early on that anyone serious about woodworking has to understand that wood moves as humidity changes. He knows that when he makes a solid wood dining table and puts it in a customer’s home, it will expand and contract with the seasons. So designing with that movement in mind, and making sure the wood is at the right moisture level during construction, is critical.
He recalls one of his earliest commissions, a dining table he built back in the ’70s.
“The classic error on a dining table is to glue boards together edge to edge and then put a piece across the end with the grain running at 90°. The length of the board that goes across the end won’t change. But the width of the other boards will.
“So I delivered the finished table to these people’s home and they were very happy with it. Several weeks later they called me. The end board fell off and had come loose. I brought it back to my shop and glued the end back on and added some extra pieces to hold the end on securely but not allow for grain expansion. Ten years later, they told me the table had cracked or ‘antiqued itself.’ I learned this lesson the hard way, and fortunately with forgiving customers.”
Today, Anderson considers a moisture meter essential when working with wood.
“I have a Wagner pinless meter. It’s my go-to tool and the first thing I grab when I’m handling lumber. It’s very easy-to-use. You just slide it across the surface and quickly get an average reading for the board’s moisture content.”
“Another plus is you never have to worry about putting holes in the wood. That’s a clear advantage,” he says.
A Wonderful Blessing
Besides building furniture in his new 2,400-square-foot woodshop, Anderson also runs a sawmill and a lumber kiln. He normally works alone but calls on a few friends to help when he runs the mill.
Anderson says he builds furniture full-time to supplement his retirement, but he also does it for the sheer joy of it. He savors his time in the shop, and because he alone is responsible for every stage of production, he can keep his standards where he wants them.
“Woodworking is a wonderful blessing,” he says. “As a man of faith, I’m grateful to God every day for the blessings in my life. My wife of 34 years died in 2013, but I have this wonderful home nestled on six beautiful acres and the opportunity to pursue a craft that’s much appreciated.”
Tony Morgan is a senior technician for Wagner Meters, where he serves on a team for product testing, development, and also customer service and training for moisture measurement products. Along with 19 years field experience for a number of electronics companies, Tony holds a B.A. in Management and his AAS in Electronics Technology.
Last updated on October 9th, 2026
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