Amish Forum

I often get this question for used pieces of furniture and have finally determined the correct answer.

Amish craftsmen make beautiful furniture, Dining Room Tables, Chairs and especially China
Hutches.  They excel in making Bedroom furniture for children and adults.  Entertainment centers to “WoW” your friends and also an Amish creation.  Recently they are making sofas for the living room both in fabrics and leather.  But we cannot forget all of the kitchen furniture for your home.  That is just for the indoors.  They make furniture for the outside out of Cedar, Pine, Poly Woods, Cypress and even Teak of all types from chairs to swings and also gazebos, tea and pool houses.  I sell all of these pieces on my website www.AmishFurnitureSuperStore.com and come by and visit a while and look at the blog.

Given to all the products they make, how are they identified?  They are not marked.  It is within the Amish religion to use the word Amish in marking their goods is a sign of pride.  They are humble servants of the Lord and do it for his Glory.  So therefore, there are no visible signs, but there is the inconspicuous ways to determine if genuine.

Look to see if there is no sign of any maker – some Amish will put a letter and number as their own identifier, this is valuable information, but is rare.  Companies put some type of name under the item out of sight, even China.  Look also for made in China and go on, it is not Amish.  The real secrets are turning the item over and look where the sun does not shine nor do you rarely look.  Follow the grain pattern underneath to that of the top.  If similar, you have solid wood construction.  Not necessarily Amish, but good quality furniture which is very positive.  Look at the styling.  They have the simple lines and a traditional look and only recently have they ventured into more modern styles.  Lastly, is the backing of the piece of furniture.  If a high grade plywood, this is good because the Amish do use plywood for backing and if you see any MDF or any other dust and glue product, that there is the giveaway that it will not be Amish.  They do not use dust and glue products.  Some people prefer to call them “Engineered Products”, but still glue and crap.

As a conclusion, seeing nothing is a good first step to determine if your furniture is Amish, seconding is the styling and lastly the wood.  All table tops are solid woods, no veneers or dust and glue, and all backing is high grade plywood or even a lesser wood such as popular.  A final note is the popular woods used are Oak, Maple, brown and hard, Cherry, Quarter Sawn Oak, Walnut, Hickory and at times related species of these woods like Birdseye Maple.  Pine is used but only in the primitive furniture line and that is another story for another time.