The Truth Behind Amish Furniture (Is it Really Amish Made?)

Is “Amish furniture” really made by the Amish? What’s the truth behind Amish furniture?

At DutchCrafters, we have more than 15 years of experience working with Amish woodworkers and selling Amish furniture online. With this video, we want to pull back the curtain and show you what it’s really like in an Amish woodworking shop and what we experience working with the Amish.

Our Experience with the Amish

Here at DutchCrafters, we’re obviously not Amish people running the website and marketing the products. However, our co-founder, Jim, has Amish ancestors and continues to lead with Mennonite values of authenticity and excellence. These core values have roots in Jim’s upbringing in northern Indiana and southern Michigan, near Amish communities. We remain in daily contact with our woodshops to maintain a strong relationship with the owners and their families.  

Technology in the Amish Woodshops

Like any religious group or community, there is some variation in beliefs, customs, and adherence to rules throughout the American Amish community. This means you may see things in these woodshops that you don’t think Amish woodworkers should have or do.  The truth is, nearly all our Amish shops now use electricity in the workplace; they’re often off-the-grid and run on generators. The bishops in the Indiana region of the Amish church tend to be more progressive, allowing Indiana shops to use more electronics and machinery than Pennsylvania shops, for example. And some shops employ non-Amish workers in their shops. Like any business, they must find a workforce.   Our Amish wood shops keep furniture quality at the forefront of their business model. You’ll feel the difference between authentic Amish furniture and cheap imports. Everything is inspected and handled by experienced woodworkers throughout the process. Therefore, with tight-fitting joints and stylish designs, the limited tools and pieces of technology they’ve chosen to adopt really improve the quality. They don’t just automate things to remove the human connection and cheapen the product. 

Non-Amish Vendors on DutchCrafters

At DutchCrafters, we work with the largest collection of Amish and conservative Mennonite woodshops online–over 150 of them. And most of these woodshops are family-owned and operated! We have just a couple of vendors with no Amish affiliation: Precedent and Hubbardton Forge. These have been selected because they offer designs not found in our Amish shops while meeting our high standards for American-made quality craftsmanship. If you want to ensure you’re ordering furniture made by Amish woodworkers, simply select any product on our site made by any other vendor. 

So, What is the Truth Behind Amish Furniture?

In summary, it may not be what you expect. If you want nothing but handsaws and wooden mallets, we don’t know where you can find that any more. But there are still hundreds of genuine Amish woodworkers carrying on a family tradition and creating furniture with passion, care, and commitment.  We assure you that we do what we can to promote our products with honesty and transparency. At DutchCrafters, we feel blessed to bring you authentic Amish furniture that you will treasure and appreciate for many years! Please look around dutchcrafters.com and see for yourself. 

Questions?

Still have questions about the Amish and their woodshops? We recommend you watch our video playlist to see Inside an Amish Woodshop and read About the Amish in our Learning Center.