Tage Frid
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Tage Frid (1915 – 2004) was an influential Danish-born woodworker who influenced the development of the studio furniture movement in the United States.
Frid was the son of a silversmith. He was apprenticed and trained in the woodworking craft in Denmark, then spent time in Iceland before immigrating to the United States in 1948 at the request of the American Craft Council. Frid headed the program in woodworking of the School for American Craftsmen at in Alfred, New York. Frid later moved with this program to Rochester Institute of Technology. In 1962 Frid became professor of Woodworking and Furniture Design at the Rhode Island School of Design, remaining until 1985.
Frid's students include noted American studio furniture makers such as Hank Gilpin, Jere Osgood, Aphonse Mattia, William Keyser, John Dunnigan, and Rosanne Somerson.
Frid was an editor of Fine Woodworking magazine from its inception in 1975 to his death.
In 2001, Tage Frid was honored by The Furniture Society with its Award of Distinction
When teaching, he emphasized a craftsman's need to learn all the available tools and methods one could use to complete a given task. Thus, the person can work in any shop situation and produce the same quality.
[edit] Publications
Frid is best known for his three-volume work, "Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking". Rather confusingly, later editions of this are published as the first two volumes in one, the third still separate:
- Frid, Tage (1993). Book 1: Joinery & Book 2: Shaping, Veneering, Finishing. Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking. Taunton Press. pp. 206 pp. + 210 pp.. ISBN 1-56158-068-6.
- Frid, Tage (1985). Book 3: Furnituremaking. Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking. Taunton Press. p. 231 pp.. ISBN 0-918804-40-X.
[edit] Further reading
- Hank Gilpin, "Professor Frid," Fine Woodworking 146 (Winter 2000-1), pp. 80-85.
- John Kelsey, "Tage Frid: A Talk with the Old Master," Fine Woodworking 52 (May-June 1985), pp. 66-67.
- Michael A. Stone, Contemporary American Woodworkers, Gibbs Smith, Salt Lake City UT, 1986, pp. 48-63.
- "Tage Frid" in Edward S. Cooke Jr., Gerald W.R. Ward, and Kelly H L'Ecuyer, The Maker's Hand: American Studio Furniture, 1940-1990, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA, 2003, p. 120.
