My love of woodwork is rooted in the love of trees and the forest. I much prefer the trees remain living, so I have taken to seeking out wood that is already on the ground. These slabs come from trees that have been brought down by natural or unavoidable forces, not felled to simply harvest their lumber.
The process of making lumber without logging...
No heavy equipment is used, eliminating the damage caused by loaders and log trucks. These large Maple slabs had to be milled with a chainsaw and carted out by hand. They weigh up to 500lb each.
After drying for a year or more, the slabs are flattened. Most will have taken on a twist, requiring lots of time with an assortment of tools of my own design. One of these wild slabs can easily have 4 hours of labor into it before it can even be measured for use in a piece of furniture.
These specialized tools allow me to process wood that industrial mills cannot. This piece was scrap from a local mill, and was sold as firewood. Inside it I found a stunning slab, perfect for a hallway table or shelf.
It sometimes feels like half of every project is surface finishing. Requiring numerous progressions of sanding, filling in knots and voids, and inumerable coats of lacquer. Getting a durable surface that displays the grain of the wood; the years and colors and forms of the trees life, takes both passion and patience.