labor day

 

 it's hard to believe it's labor day, historically thought of as 'the end of summer'.  the calendar says we have three more weeks, and i like to think of summer going until the golf courses close and paddle tennis season starts.  so, in my head i at least, have 6 more weeks of summer.  the weather has been sooo spectacular here the lately, that i've been distracted from my writing.  taking a break i guess.  there has still been a lot going on though.  we picked up the desk above from the local arts center where i had loaned it to them last year for their receptionist, hoping to sell it.  we realized that it needed to be 'on its own' in one of the galleries, so we brought it back to the shop to refresh it ... good as new now, and still available.  see the link above or the 'stuff for sale' link in the 'pages' section off to the right there ..

below are a few of the things that have been happening the last couple of weeks.

we finished a base for a 60" round coffee table.  the design was by a new york interior designer and the top was fabricated by our friends at kb woodworking in cairo, new york .. they are the go to folks for fancy veneer work of all kinds ...

our part was pretty simple and involved a curved form and a little joinery .. we shipped it to the designer's finisher for bleaching and it will eventually end up on the east end of long island ..

and we finished up a collection of pieces for a house that will be finished shortly.  we'll be delivering them all on the 11th ... above is a new version of a sideboard we first made back in 2009.  a little different arrangement of the dimensions, and the mirrors and so forth, but essentially, the same piece.

and sam made some funky custom door pulls for a local builder's new frig.  it was a collaborative design, and they came out pretty cool .. the door panels were made from a tag sale bed headboard.  pretty creative project all around.

and trevor and i visited a project we did back in 2009, a house in grafton where we did a lot of work.  after five years, there were some rope lights that needed replacing, and the client was concerned that the weight of the center speaker (very heavy) on the ends of the cantilevered shelf support had bent the shelf.  we'll be making a new version with a thicker top piece and hopefully, we can slide the old one out and the new one in without messing with the wiring, which was pretty complicated, to say the least.

on the way back, we visited another project to check templates for an upcoming railing project that sam will be starting before long .. the rolling door and stools below are also part of that one ..

reclaimed chestnut ... installation check in the upstairs of the metal shop ..

four more of these stools

and the rest of the new house project .. a claro walnut slab coffee table

a dining table and six chairs

and the two swiveling lounge chairs from this blog post

 

chris is working on another pop up tv cabinet .. more on that as it comes together later this week .. 

and we had our first wedding among the 13 cousins ... that would be lizzie, in the white in the middle, sitting on the porch of her new house ... true to the family spirit, they are building it themselves, in their spare time, and for the party, the living room was stacked floor to ceiling with the flooring.

an oak slab trestle table

we just finished this fine white oak slab top trestle table ... the slab itself was cut from very near the center of the tree and it is about 46" wide on one end and 40" wide on the other.  flat as a pancake .. 

click the photos to enlarge them ...

beautiful quartered figure toward the outsides of the slab and interesting edges where insect worked under the bark .. this mist have been one fine tree.

a view from the bottom, before we cut the top to length.  trevor did a great job on this one.

three oak butterflies to control the crack in the end

there was some discussion of light vs dark butterflies and we were able to mock it up 

in photoshop to help the clients decide .. light above ..

dark ones ..

laying out the parts ..

trevor, pegging the top rail joinery

it's headed for sugarbush, in warren, vt, on monday

you all have a great thanksgiving weekend ... after turkey day, we'll be finishing up the move to the new metal shop ..

an expresso finish claro walnut table

ok, here's a big one ... 40 " wide, 12' long, with our standard steel 'shaker' base. this time we did the steel in our new 'rainbow' finish. we purchased this new patina color from our friends at sur-fin chemical company. it's a little fussier and more unpredictable than our regular blackening chemical, but the results are quite striking. browns and blacks with subtle hints of other colors in the right light. looks great with the 'expresso' finish on this table ... .
the expresso finish was a request from the designer, and we had to make a number of samples before we got one we all liked. the finish that we used this time appears 'thinner', and more like an oil finish, and we plan to try it on some of our upcoming natural finish tables.
there was also a request for 'no cracks', which led us to advanced repair technologies 'no shrink, tintable', epoxy filler. after a little experimenting, that new product is also a hit with us. it takes a couple of days to dry really hard, but if we hit it right, we can do it on a friday and flush it up monday ... as seen on this old house
the filled crack after leveling ... trevor loosely fitted some pieces of walnut with similar grain into the largest of the cracks before filling them.
this crack is in one of the other, natural finish tables we're working on and we filled this large crack with smaller pieces of the darkest wood we can find, which was also an effective technique ... more on that table later ...
the slab was too big to get to the cnc upstairs, so trevor routed for the bases by hand with a bearing and a template.
the bottom of the 10' natural table ...
and will in steve holman's spray booth before the final topcoats over the expresso stain ... nice booth ... nice finish ...

New Claro Slab Table is FInished

Well OK ... Another big claro walnut slab table. We've made quite a few of them now and there is more information about them on my blog than a person could likely want to read. (If not, be sure to scroll to 'older posts'). But, we like them. They always seem to have this mysterious sense of substance to them when they are completed. The wood is dark and deep and totally unpredictable in its grain and color. We like the steel bases too. This one looks a little shinier in the picture above than it is in person. There was a little sunlight sneaking in the door when I took the picture and, reflected off the floor, it made the base look pretty impressive. Actually, it's clean, but not real reflective and is meant to match the 'zinc' counters in the client's kitchen ... Click the photos to enlarge them ....
A bird's eye view of this 48 x 120 x 3" thick slab ... We figure conservatively that the table weighs at least 400 pounds assembled and I am unable to pick one end off the floor without feeling like I might hurt something ... For shipping to Montana, the slab will unbolt from the base and the 5 part base will be disassembled.
This project has been going on for a month or so so I reloaded a few of the relevant pictures of the process. You can see the other posts in the 'claro slab tables' category to the right. Above is the raw slab before we trimmed it to width and length.
First step was to use my trusty 25 year old 3.5" Makita hand held planer to smooth the rough sawn top.
Then since we had other stuff going on in the shop, the preliminary planing and cutting was done at my garage. Easier than loading and unloading, and, with my old truck on it's way to the graveyard, we towed it merrily down the driveway with Sam's Saab, whistling while we worked.
We laid in a few strategic butterflies
And worked on the chairs that go with it at the same time ... They are a version of our contemporary ladderbacks with a 'Danish cord' seat by Sandy Sherman chair caning. Danish cord seats were popularized by Hans Wegner in the 50's and 60's and are friendly and comfortable, though a bit labor intensive. The chairs are, like Windsors, more about the silhouette than the grain of the wood ...
Our typical base installation
A close up of the finish
The chairs in two views ...
The 160 nails per seat that it takes to organize the weaving. Fortunately for Sandy, Trevor was able to layout and rout the holes on the cnc so all Sandy had to do was hammer them in.
And in contrast, an updated photo of our 'skinny console' for comparison ... You can pick that one up with one hand ...

FInishing Up the Big Table

I don't have time to write a long post, but I did promise a potential client I would put up some photos of the table we've been working on ... Also, we picked up the chairs Monday and they are pretty sharp too ... It's our first experience with 'Danish Cord' seats. Nice job by Sandy Sherman Chair Caning of Brookline, Vermont.
This is the second coat of gloss finish .. the final satin coat will go on probably today
The eight side chairs
Close up ... all for now