Makers: Samuel Harrell
In a world that is becoming increasingly more automated and digital, Samuel Harrell has chosen a different path.
Down a long, gravel driveway in Clay County Mississippi, lives a young man with an old soul. On any given morning, you can find him leaning over his workbench reading his notes and sketches while steam rolls from his coffee (black of course) and a happy fire crackles in his potbelly stove. Shop dogs Ernie, the long-haired dachshund, and Moxley, the German shepherd, lay sprawled beneath the lathe on a bed of fresh bodark shavings.
There is not a screen in sight. Not on his equipment or in his hands. In a world that is becoming increasingly more automated and digital, Samuel Harrell has chosen a different path
Don’t be fooled by his age (26,) he’s been working on his craft for nearly half of his life. You could say that the draw to woodworking is hereditary, passed on to him from his grandfather, Robert Donald Harrell. Samuel spent his summers making cut out wooden knifes and swords with a bandsaw and pocket-knife under the watchful eye of “Papa.” Once he graduated high school he moved to Illinois apprenticing under contemporary furniture maker, Mike Jarvi.
It was there in Illinois that Samuel fell in love with making fine furniture and the use of hand tools. His appreciation for the old way of doing things is evident even in his tools themselves, many of which were still new when Teddy Roosevelt was President of The United States.
Samuel’s workshop oozes energy and creativity. Maybe it’s the smell of fresh cut lumber mixed with coffee and dirt or maybe it’s how each time I visit, he’s got a new project going. You just never know what you’ll walk in on. One time, he was working on a four-poster bed made of Spanish Cedar. On other occasions it’s been shutters, bowls, screen doors, handrails, coffered ceilings, wood duck boxes, a bath tub, a gigantic hand-turned baseball bat chair, and my favorite of all, the rocking horse he made for his son.
You can’t be in a place like Samuel’s workshop without being motivated to make what you have around you better. It’s a pleasure to be around someone who pushes himself to be excellent. It’s infectious. Everything about his shop, from how he keeps his tools sharp and oiled, to the dust collection systems that he’s fabricated, to the little ways he’s improved his shop since I’ve been there last, to his curiosity to try new techniques and learn new skills is admirable.
It’s nice to know that there are still folks who can make things. I mean really make things. It’s people like Samuel, a dedicated few, who are carrying on the legacy of quality woodworking and design. Real craftsmen. Without people like him, this skill would be lost to the slow grind of “progress” as the world becomes more technologically “advanced” place.
We should all be so lucky to have a few Samuels in our life to call a friend and to share a well-spent morning together in good conversation without the bombardment of screens and the noise of the outside world.
You can follow along with Samuel Harrell on Instagram @samueljacksonharrell
