A new set of ladderback chairs, and a trestle table to match

I should start by introducing myself as Kit and Dan's nephew Kristian Moore

I have been working in the dorset custom furniture shop for the last four years and am excited to be writing my first blog post. Thank you Dan, for creating such a vast depository of custom furniture, art, and life!

For this most recent custom order of ladderback chairs the clients requested a taller back with more space between backsplats. After a few design changes and reprogramming we started cutting out parts on the CNC.

our traditional ladderback on the left, and the new design on the right

back legs and mortices cut with the cnc

Every time I build chairs I am surprised by the amount of time they take! Lots of parts and pieces to mill, each piece with mortises of tenons to cut, and lots of sanding…

Once assembled they get a once over before the staining begins. For this set of chairs the client wanted a near black finish, so we used three coats aniline dye, black, brown, and black again before having our neighbor Kevin spray a dull finish on everything.

For this project I gained some experience doing the upholstery. Using a ½” plywood seat blank I added three layers of batting for the cushion before applying this distressed cowhide. The upholstery was a new challenge for me and I’m very glad I took it on as it was gratifying to work with the leather, a new medium.

The table top was a beautiful set of variegated walnut from Irion lumber which we decided needed breadboard ends aesthetically and to ensure minimal movement over time as we were able to get the top out of a three board matching set. The Trestle base is very rugged yet appears light weight due to the two vertical legs on each end and two horizontal beams that mirror each other.

And here we are all finished with seat cushions attached. ready to be shipped

all the best for 2023

happy new year all !!

after 15 years of writing this blog, 

i am a little short on new things to say about 

the past, and about 2023, except to wish you all the best.

we had a great 2022 and i hope you did too.

here's what i said back in 2016 and again  2010

some of my favorite quotes are there ... like the one below

and others like that ...

and ok ... new year, new slide show

here is a link to the page where you will find it, 

down toward the bottom of it there.

'work from 2022'

i let myself get a little carried away, adding some 

pet photos, historic items, music videos, golf and weather stuff, 

making it a bit of a lengthy one ... you can click through pretty quickly.

42 years of our previous work there too.  literally thousands of photos ...

if you are looking for more info on any of the photos,

 you may see a link with the photo, and though it won't work, it will 

tell you the month in 2022 that i wrote a blog post about it

which should make it pretty easy to find ...

  

onward !

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

try this link

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 ..

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

try this link

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

'old man project'

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!

milestones ...

 

time passes ... 

so pay attention folks!  there are markers as time goes by.

 i have been working on 'my old man project' a la john mcphee

and i am seeing the milestones  pile up ... 

in may 1969 i graduated from penn state and hit the road ...

after stops in key largo for the winter of 1969-70, washington d.c. 

for the spring, montauk, the summer of 1970, san francisco/san jose,

 briefly, then to palm springs for the winter of 70-71, new orleans, 

briefly, europe, may, and june, i arrived in vermont on july 6th, 1971,

with $6.00 in my pocket and everything i owned in one hand.

i had come to visit my sister in arlington, who had gotten me a (possible) job 

tending bar at the roundhouse, a live music bar in manchester ... i went the next 

day for my interview, and ace manley, one of the owners, hired me.

i met kit on september 6th that year, quit my traveling, and we married 

in 1973.  you can pick up the story from there in the posts below ...

house building, carpentry, furniture business, two boys, sam in 1982,

 will in 1984, a move to dorset in 1996, and in 2000, a new house and shop.

i have not finished the whole saga yet, but at 75, i am turning

some of my business responsibilities over to our VERY capable 

nephew Kristian Moore, who will be dealing with new and returning 

customers, and taking over some of the posting on this blog ... 

most of our work comes from the internet, and i have not kept up lately.

kristian has been working closely with me now for over 3 years, is 

enthusiastic, and is completely capable of all things furniture making. 

 i am soooo lucky. 

sam and luke are in the metal shop, will and abe are making banjos, 

and kristian and i are making furniture here in 

the 'west dorset industrial park'.

after 42 years i have some (a lot of) clutter at the shop and 

at the house, and it is now time for me to clean that up a bit.

i feel fortunate, after some open heart and hip replacement surgery 

two years ago, to be fit and active, and on the right side of the grass.

enjoy every healthy moment folks ...

'tempus fugit'

 

for the next installment, click the 'older post' link at the bottom of each post ..