David Goldenberg is a plastic surgeon from Danbury whose curiosity and craftsmanship defy bounds. When he puts down the scalpel, he is likely to pick up the homemade throwing knife.
Goldenberg grew up in Brooklyn the son of a navy man and working mother.
“They raised three kids in relatively poor circumstances in Brooklyn,” said Goldenberg. “Though there was always a genetic line of craftsmanship that came down through the generations. My sister is a professional artist in California; my brother is an electrical engineer.
Goldenberg attended the experimental school in Brooklyn called John Dewey High School.
“They gave me free rein. I met some mentors in science teachers, but also I met a lot of good shop teachers,” said Goldenberg.
Goldenberg would often stay after school with the teachers and work in the shop.
“When I graduated high school, I graduated with awards in biology, chemistry, music and industrial arts,” said Goldenberg. “It was all there. They nurtured me and taught me not to be afraid of failure.”
Goldenberg went on to attend Bowdoin College in Maine and then on to New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y. He completed his residency in six years at Montefiore Hospital & Albert Einstein College Hospital in the Bronx.
“I became a plastic surgeon, which is as creative a medical specialty as you”™re going to find,” said Goldenberg. “We”™re all very technically oriented. It was a no brainer to become a plastic surgeon even though it may have taken a lot of brains to get there.”
Goldenberg went directly into solo practice in Danbury for eight years and which grew and merged into what is now a 14-person multispecialty group called Advanced Specialty Care. He is also chief of plastic surgery at Danbury Hospital and a member of the Connecticut Medical Examining Board.
Goldenberg has always had a shop, from working summers to buy tools in Brooklyn to what is now the bottom floor of his house in Danbury: the fourth incarnation of a still-growing workspace.Some of the machines in the shop he bought in high school, some last week and some he made.
Goldenberg has fabricated a forge for metal shaping and made a lathe for metal spinning.
“It”™s been a constant effort to make things,” said Goldenberg. “When you”™ve made 10,000, the next one is not going to be as hard to make as the first. What I”™ve done is assemble all the technology I need to fabricate something.”
Goldenberg works in, but is not limited to, metal, wood, plastic, molding jewelry, stone napping, concrete casting and forming leather.
“What runs through everything I do, whether it is woodturning or blacksmithing, is that it has to do with shaping materials,” said Goldenberg. “It”™s subtracting material; it”™s adding it; and it”™s all about shape. Pick any material you want, it can be shaped.”
Goldenberg has drawers and drawers of perfect and not-so-perfect examples of his craft including knives, arrowheads, bowls, jewelry, wood planes, engravings, telescopes, sheaths and jewelry to name a few. The kitchen and living room tables are both examples of his work.
“People are very creative beings by nature,” said Goldenberg. “It”™s not about making arrowheads; it”™s about taking a raw material and making it into a finished product, the best product it can be.”
Some of Goldenberg”™s areas of craft can seem eccentric and often obscure, like the hobo-coins he has made to match those traded for food by the vagabonds of the 1920”™s. Others are easier to grasp, like the collection of polished jade or the jewelry he”™s fashioning for his wife to match those worn on the pages of Vogue magazine.Â
 “Whenever I think of something I want to try, I either buy the machine or make the machine,” said Goldenberg. “The variety of stuff is very broad.”
A perfect example of Goldenberg”™s goal can be seen in the old railroad spikes the he fashions into beautiful knifes with spun handles and matching sheaths.
“The point of all of this is seeing what something can be in something else,” said Goldenberg. “It”™s raw material to finished product and making that better and better.”
Goldenberg also makes throwing knives with a target out back to test his work. He collects old tools and makes his own; wood planes are some of his favorites.
“You need to be very precise about it,” said Goldenberg. “You can take a crummy piece of steel and grind it and make a knife. But what”™s the difference between that and a great piece of work that has great design and functional capability? The whole point is to get better and extract the success. Failure is a critical part of it. The reasons a lot of people don”™t get into all these things is because there”™s so much failure because it reveals what”™s wrong with the process.”
The Goldenberg line has continued, with a daughter and son who are beside their father creating work in his old curiosity shop behind a garage in a neighborhood of Danbury.
