more stuff

more time flies by, and again i find i'm not doing much writing on my blog here ... been busy, and the work, 

while interesting, is not that new or challenging that it needs to be explained too much ... 

so, we'll continue with the show and tell ...

here we have a small claro walnut slab dining table, about 36-38 x 72 with a walnut bench.

headed to sag harbor soon with a nice mottled green vermont slate and steel coffee table .

'rothkoesque' i believe would be a good description ...

and we're about to wrap up this steel and pine bar .. 

a couple more coats of finish on the top and it will be good to go

'mountains and stream' steel work by sam

and this is how it starts ...

and another one of those 'oil finish in a sunny room' tables from 1991 returned for a visit.

trevor removed the breadboard ends, and rescraped it with his trusty stanley 81

to see what you can do with that tool in 21 seconds, here's a link to a youtube video.

most woodworkers have one of these tools hanging around, but few of them use them as much as we

do .. i don't think it took him more than 15 minutes to get the old finish off and expose the beautiful wood below. 

tah dah .. better than new ... the aged cherry color is beautiful ..

this one, from 1989, from the same client, was a little more of a challenge with the black milk paint details ...

we first scraped what we could, then using a piece of 1/4" mdf to shield the long sections of the center detail

we carefully removed the finish with a chiselscraper.  in case you are unfamiliar with it, a chiselscraper is

 a new tool i made by putting a scraper type hook on a 1" chisel.  a valuable leap of logic.

again .. better than new .. we left the spot where the puppy chewed the breadboard end 

and just a few of the deeper and more meaningful scratches.

and we've got a couple new claro walnut slab projects coming up. the one above is going to be 

a dining table in a half round room ...

about 60" x about 65" with a new base design that looks good on the model ..

and this one is gonna be a big coffee table about 48 x 66 ..

and, on top of all this, i have a kitchen design i'm in the middle of .. more on that later ...

the fish are biting for sam

and i'm back to painting with my friend horst ...

all for now ...

see my dorset custom furniture facebook page for a few good merle haggard videos ..

gonna miss merle too ...

some claro walnut furniture

we delivered a project we've been working on for a while on thursday .. new house .. looking sharp, and we were glad to participate in furnishing it ..
above, we did the table, chairs and sideboard ...
click the photos to enlarge them ... 

and here we made the coffee table and the two swiveling lounge chairs i wrote about earlier ..

the tables were made from the sister slab of a long dining table we made last year .. like the previous clients, these folks liked the cracks and we left them butterflied on the bottom and sanded, 

but unfilled on the top.  it's a very natural look ...

chris made the sideboard and he did a great job!  we have made other versions of this piece, so while it's a fussy one, we pretty much had it figured out ..

a live edge coffee table

we delivered another nice claro wlanut slab coffee table this week.  the slab is one of a pair we bought back in january, specifically for this project, and in the meantime, sold the other one to another client who just happened to be looking for a small dining table exactly the size of the other slab.  

sometimes you just get lucky.  clcik the photos to enlarge them.

so here it is, onsite friday morning .. a cloudy day, but still a warm object with a little light.

at one point, i considered straightening the flair, but decided to not even ask .. the

live edge was just too nice ..

the base design is one we have used before in flat, 1/2" steel, but the tubing is a little more refined.

we added our dark bronze patina to the natural, polished steel.

 earlier in the process, i took the base to the client's home nearby with a piece of half inch mdf cut the to same size and shape as the actual slab.  i then took a couple photos ...

 and then, with a little creative photoshopping, added a photo of the the sister slab from the table below, which by that time was already finished and shipped.  this mockup helped the clients visualize the

finished table in their space .. it took a minute,  but was well worth the effort.  compare this photo with the onsite photo at the top and you can get a handle on the 'power of photoshop'.

all for now.  enjoy your sunday ...

all claro wlanut, all the time

ok, claro wlanut, i love this wood ... fancy, warm, vibrantly figured most of the time, stable, flat; it's all good ... and we have made a lot of stuff with it. lately, as we get more requests for custom pieces, i have come to feel the need to have some photos of our different items in one place ... a sort of, 'here, this about sums it up' link, so i don't have to get a picture here, get another picture there, find a picture of that specific table base .... etc, etc. if you make custom stuff for other people, and have been doing it for a while, you'll know what i mean ... anyway; here goes ... please click the photos to enlarge them ...
first up, cause i like the warm and fuzzy photo at the top, is this coffee table we made for a client in the boston area, who actually had the luxury of keeping it on her covered porch along with a collection of our outdoor lounge chairs ... for more info on this project, check out this blog post ...
sometimes, at the end of a project we even get letters like the one above .. 'my home has been trumped by the table' ... hmmmm, i doubt it, cause i've seen photos of the house, but it's a nice compliment, regardless. it goes with the table on the crossbuck base below, and the original blog post from 2008 is here. i think that one may be the one that started it all for us ... but here's another early one, and the first table we did with the solid steel base, what we refer to as our 'shaker style' legs ... learning process on that one ... but, we got 'er done, and have done many others with that style legs in both bright and blackened steel the original blog post is here ...
we made a little model first on the cnc and sprayed it with the krylon metalllic paint. looks like the real thing, only a tenth as big ...
the finished table, cut from its backgroundbirds eye view of the grain in the top ...
sometimes we have to assist mother nature in getting the shape exactly right
but all's well that ends well .... this was a big one ... about 4' wide and 11' long ... original blog post here ...
and above is another letter from a happy desk client ... some drawers and secret compartments made for a really special desk ... this was a recent one from late last year ... more info here


we start with slabs like this one; in fact we bought four from goodhope, from the same log and used them for the desk above, the table below, the table we have in our current show at the southern vermont arts center, and we still have one more available on out wall that you can see a couple photos down ...
this was a fantastic piece of wood when it was all polished up, and it's now happy in its new home in the hamptons ... california to goodhope hardwoods in pennsylvania to vermont, to east hampton .... lots of miles on most of these. we have two to montana, about a 6000 mile trip !!

 above are thee versions of our 'trapezoid' bases, a desk, a dining table and a coffee table.  these bases are all also available in 'natural', rainbow, and blackened finishes.

several tables have our ladderback chairs in one form or another ... these above sport nice 'bomber jacket leather' seats.
the raw material ... often, not perfect, though with lots and lots of potential ...
this one heads off to england next week in a pair of crates via ocean freight. even more miles on that one ... this has a new base design based on our designer client's input ... again, a model was helpful in determining the final proportions ... more info here ...
the leg assemblies are drilled tapped and bolted together and can be easily shipped flat, in pieces.and we often add butterflies to both decorate and stabilize the cracks.
this one is in our current show at the southern vermont arts center in nearby manchester.great figure and grain character in this one ... and this is the last slab from the spectacular log you have seen in some of the previous pictures. it's from closest to the center of the log and probably has, actually, the best figure yet. it was completely cracked into two pieces when it arrived, and we intend, in the end, to probably use it as two pieces, connected by butterflies, but separated as above by a 1/4 inch or so. even without finish the color is amazing ... call now to discuss your options ...
sometimes a client will select a slab from the goodhope 'specials' or 'coffee table slab' page and we add just simple wooden or polished steel pipe bases. keep it simple stupid ... and now we're at the sawbuck base table that goes with the letter at the top ... solid, twist and reverse twisted 1.25" steel crosspiece by sam in the metal shop ...
or we can weld other steel base designs from structural stock ... these pieces were fabricated by sam in the metal shop from 3/4" stock and some round, 1.5" solid bar stock

more info on this project here ... again with the models ... love 'em ...
some polished or black pipe legs .. instant coffee table
this bed and side table assembly went to florida and is made from a pair of american, not claro walnut, but spectacular nonetheless. i post it with the claro pieces because the design could easily be made using a claro slab as well ...
and sometimes we get to make a little bench for a new york city apartment entrance hall ... this one is 36" x 15". small, but i love the form and it opens up the possibility for others like it as well as new dining table base designs.
specs and shapes of our available leg designs, all of which can be customized and made heavier, lighter, wider, or shorter, as you wish. our most popular is the one above, in 1.5" thick steel.

and pretty much any welded shape you can come up with can be fabricated by sam in our in house custom metal shop
and here, i'll talk VERY GENERALLY AND UNSPECIFICALLY about prices ...these prices of these tables are directly related to what we have to pay for the wood slab, delivered to our shop. a rule of thumb seems to be, or could be about $1000. to $1400. per lineal foot of table ... anyway, that's a place to start, but the final price could be more or less than that, if, for example, you select an extra wide, extra long, or figured slab, or one with some extra character from the specials page. each project is priced individually with the cost of the wood being the main factor ...

we sell the leg assemblies separately. the solid, waterjetted, 1.5" thick sets start at $3500. as drawn and pictured in the natural finish.  for the black or rainbow patina, add $400. there is a separate upcharge for custom shapes and 1.75" thick stock.  for each design that upcharge is different. custom shape and thickness quotes on request.  shipping for the bases in the northeast would be +/- 250-350.  nationwide quotes are available with your shipping address.

so, 'here, this about sums it up' for claro walnut for now ... but i also feel like we have just scratched the surface ...

other walnut blogs posts at the links below:
a dozen big ones
how much does a claro walnut slab table cost?
one for sale right now