click to enlarge Matthew Pastre is part of an elite few period woodworkers in the world, who share tips and techniques through niche groups and guilds and specialty publications, keeping alive traditions on the brink of extinction. “We’re kind of nerds,” says the Legrangeville craftsman with a laugh. “We’re a different breed, let’s put it that way.” For Pastre, who has been woodworking for 40 years, it was the Federal style—with its lithe lines and delicate use of veneer—that caught his eye while flipping through the pages of Jeffrey Greene’s American Furniture of the 18th Century: History, Technique, Structure. Before the rise of the Federal period, and with it of veneer work, pieces were constructed of a single species of wood. Furniture was monochrome, large, heavy, imposing. “Then Federal came along, mixing all this color and types of wood,” Pastre says. “The lines were cleaner. And the veneer work—you could use veneer in a way you couldn't use solid wood, to embellish the grain and the features of that particular tree to a degree that was unheard of. A whole different world opened up to me. So I just ran with it and thought I was going to make a million dollars,” he says with a good-natured laugh.