Saw a photo of a chair found in an Egyptian tomb. All parts were beads and coves. Can't imagine how long it took to do an entire chair.
I marvel at furniture made 200 years ago with hand tools or bow lathes, etc., Joints are so precise, they look like one piece.
It's not the sophistication of the tools, it's the skills of the user. With even limited experience, chair joints can be made precisely. I've made almost a dozen Windsor chairs -- including a settee. The only power tool I've used is a lathe for the legs. All else was done with drawknife, spokeshave, plane, travisher, scorp, and brace/bit. Hundreds have survived 200 years of use. Those old guys were far more skilled than we give them credit for.
The beads and coves probably took no more than several hours at most, even on a bow lathe.
There was, may still be, a video of a race between two turners making 8" bowls -- one on a modern lathe, the other on a pole lathe. It came out a tie, or perhaps the pole lathe tuner was slightly faster. Those technologies are far more effective than we imagine, especially in the hands of an experienced / skilled user. And most tasks are simpler than we often make them.
I don't teach a class -- even multiaxis ones -- until I figure out how to do the project with minimal equipment -- that way students can go home and make more using what they have. At show and tell, people look at my multiaxis work and tell me "of course you used an eccentric chuck" or "vacuum chuck" or whatever else. I tell them "no" -- I don't own, let alone use either. You don't need them. There are simpler, cheaper, and equally effective ways to do things, in the same amount of time.
