Thursday, November 24, 2022

a live edge steel and cherry desk


we made this nice live edge cherry computer desk
for a long time friend of the family ...
the steel base spent a little testing time in sam's shop while we
worked on the slab top .. trigger approved it ...
there were two options, live edge up or live edge down ..
glad we ended up with the live edge up ... 
the angled cut is the notch that felled the tree ...

cad drawing above
 the design was loosely based on a pair of cherry 
recording studio tables we made for a friend

to see more of the live edge pieces we have made over the years

Saturday, November 19, 2022

the mountain goat

 well, sometimes you have to step outside the wheelhouse to
help some friends, and it always feels good when you do.
our friends, the manleys, had been promised in 2021 that the work would
be done 'this year', but unfortunately, the contractor 'couldn't get to it' 
and it needed to be 'got to' ... so, kristian and i volunteered to help ..
kit and i have long been good friends with the manleys, and ace's family 
has owned this building downtown for over a hundred years. 
ace, briefly mentioned in my old man project, is the guy who hired me
to work at the roundhouse when i got off the bus in arlington 51 years ago ... 
looong time friends .... we skied and snowshoed, fished, played softball and 
paddle tennis, were more or less next door neighbors for 5 years,
vacationed together a bit, and all had kids the same year in the early 80s ...  
read on, and click the photos for a closer look .... 
 
here is the building in its original configuration as the combination cash store.
it was opened by ace's grandfather, and then run by his brother til the late 70s
when it went on to become a furniture store, a sheep skin place, and now,
the mountain goat, a patagonia store
 
we needed a lot of stuff to do what we needed to do, and on main st, no less
day 1... scrape and paint, polish the copper, consider the flaking plaster
day 2 .. upgrade/replace the floor, clean up the window over the door .. more plaster
there was some molding and flashing that needed attention,
and we noticed that there was something missing over the front entrance,
 
a matching cornice!

i photoshopped in what was missing and put it on the list
 
we started with the obvious repairs first, stripped off the rotten
crown molding and installed some new, and got monarch metal
to whip up some copper flashing to dress up the new moldings ..
after a little nibbler work by kristian.we were able to slide the new flashings 
under the existing ones we had cut back to get the old molding off,
and now the painter, mrs. manley is on the job 
with us daily, and making good progress.
on next to the new cornice ... 
we haven't built many 25' long things in the shop lately, but we got it together
and with a little help from sam and luke from the metal shop, 
we wrestled it into place and flashed it ... by this time, kristian 
had repaired the plaster, and there were
 only a couple more details to go ..
 the original window
we had to spruce up the original combination cash store co. window,
 and you can see a little of the new floor here ..
we just had to replace some missing molding pieces and spray paint
some 'fake' details on the blank new cornice brackets to wrap it up.
the brackets for the existing cornice had these nice carved through details and
looked more interesting than the blank ones under the new cornice
we played around with an mdf stencil and some spray paint and viola!
you almost wouldn't notice that they're fake ...
over and out ... this was a real 'feel good project' .. 
always nice to help out some longtime friends ..

Monday, November 14, 2022

a live edge, book matched elm slab table

                                         our client purchased these bookmatched english elm
slabs from Berkshire Products in sheffield massachusetts
the table went to williamstown, mass, and now has a nice view
of mount greylock !
pretty nice pair
 The steel base pieces are factory made and the client purchased them from a store in Pittsfield.  
we picked them up on our way home from picking up the slabs

beautiful grain ... 
there were two small bark inclusions that we filled with clear epoxe

with approximate dimensions

  •  

great wood, great house, great location!

to see more live edges pieces that we have 
made over the last 30 years



Thursday, November 10, 2022

a large square white oak dining table

 
we delivered this table actually a couple of months ago, but i have
totally been slacking off in my blog posting, working slowly on my
scroll down  ...  so far i have covered from 1969 to about 1999 ...
anyway, it is a six foot by 6' by 1.75" thick white oak top with 
steel base ... the clients requested that we stain the top
and paint the base to match their existing porch furniture .. 
the paint job was a little tricky, but kristian pulled it off .. 
at some point we calculated that the top alone would weigh about 350 pounds
when it was glued up and finished, so we decided to leave it in two pieces
in case it would ever have to be moved in the future ... we also added 
two pieces of 1 x 3 steel tubing routed into the bottom, outside the base
 to keep things flat over time and help connect the two halves.
3 x 3 x 1/4" wall tubing base by sam 
and that's about it .. all in, all done
great spot!