The Quiet strength of a curve

Ship’s Knees and the Enduring Language of New England Craft 

Along the rocky coastline of New England, form has always followed function. Wind, water, and weather shaped not only the land but also the objects made to endure it. Among the most telling expressions of this relationship between nature and craft is the ship’s knee. A humble, curved timber brace that once strengthened the hulls of 18th-century seafaring vessels against the pounding sea. 

In the age of wooden ships, a ship’s knee was never ornamental. It was not carved by machine but discovered within the tree itself—taken from the natural junction where trunk met branch or root. The grain followed the curve, uninterrupted and unbroken, creating a structural element of remarkable strength. Made primarily from oak or elm, the earliest knees were made from the shallow roots of the tamarack. Over time, as locating and digging these roots became increasingly labor-intensive, knees were steam-bent and produced in the lumber mills. 

Invisible yet essential; they were uncompromisingly honest. This reverence for natural form would come to define the region’s approach to making and design aesthetics long after the sails were lowered for the last time.  

Eastward Chair

New England furniture has always favored restraint over excess, integrity and simplicity over ornamentation. Guided by Shaker principles yet intent on forging a language of his own, Tom Moser looked to Maine’s boatbuilding traditions when seeking a light, elegant, and durable brace for his designs. In the late 1970s, he first incorporated a laminated interpretation of the ship’s knee into the underside of the Thos. Moser Continuous Arm Chair.  

Each knee, formed from flitch-cut veneer and cured using radio-frequency lamination, is cut to size and shaped by hand to fit precisely within the mortise of the chair’s leg. The ship’s knee embodies Tom Moser’s belief that beauty arises from form rather than ornament. It is a clear expression of origin, thoroughly reimagined for furniture design, revealing the quiet elegance of structural integrity. 

For Thos. Moser, the ship’s knee became a way to translate this regional intelligence into furniture design; an answer to the enduring question of how to achieve strength without heaviness. Where others used stretchers, Tom adapted the boatbuilder’s brace into a refined form. The introduction of this structural solution allowed chairs and benches to appear lighter, more open, and more inviting, while remaining uncompromisingly strong. Hidden beneath the surface yet essential to the whole, the ship’s knee reflects a belief that the most meaningful design elements are those that serve a purpose first. These supportive yet refined braces would go on to become a hallmark of many subsequent chair and bench designs, allowing for a distinctly light profile without sacrificing strength. It is this quiet integrity, where form is guided by necessity and beauty emerges naturally, that continues to distinguish Thos. Moser furniture today. 

In a world of fleeting design cycles, the language of the ship’s knee feels quietly radical. Its curve tells a story older than any room it enters; one of the boreal forests that hug rugged coastlines, of hands guided by experience, and of objects made to endure. 

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