During  a barn clean out, I looked up at the loft from below and saw the curled piece of iron in the photo to the right of the pipe.

I was pretty sure of what I was looking at so I climbed up into the loft.  Mingled in with the lumber was the other end of the curled iron that was visible from below.

Here are some new additions to my creative art portfolio!

SOLD

I pulled a great door out of a house demolition recently.  The paint on this door has the look I study and replicate on the furniture I build.  It has a beautiful black green textured surface that invites the passer by in to look closer.  With closer inspection, I noticed the front of the door was a metal sheet, similar to a safe door.  Turns out it came off the bottom half of a beehive oven.  It measures 15 1/2" wide x 28" high.  Perhaps you may have a use for it "as is" or we could use it for a cupboard door.  It has its original pintles and latch.  If interested, let us know.

Several months ago a lady brought me a slab cut from a very old white cedar tree.  She knew a man with a sawmill and he gave it to her about 35 years ago.  She had it stored in her barn all this time and intended to have something made with it.  She recently sold her home and while cleaning out the barn she was reacquainted with the old slab.  She said, "When I saw it, I knew exactly where to take it!"  She was right!

It seems like the late George Nakashima, who was a renowned furniture maker, famous for his slab tables, was right on his table base designs.  This white cedar slab deserved one of Nakashima's base designs.  We made the base from a walnut slab, the favorite wood choice of George Nakashima.

We have the salvage rights to a nearby house and barn circa 1850.

The new owners bought the house for the property.  A wonderful corner lot with great early morning sunshine, which has always been something I love.  They told me that one family that was raised in the house had 10 kids.  You can see in the photo to the left of the chimney and left of the window, I have torn off some siding to reveal beautiful wide oak sheathing.

This past Saturday, while on my way to a deconstruction site, I passed by this firewood storage tree? Not only is this a strange way to store firewood, but how do they think they are going to get the ladder down?  Now they need another ladder to get to the ladder in the tree, never mind their firewood!

Old wood is good wood

If you want to get some new furniture for your living room or kitchen and want some nice wooden pieces, then don’t just nip down to your local furniture store.

Photo: dutchb0y

We all know that the world’s forests have been depleted at an astonishing rate.  Currently one third of the planet’s land area is covered with forest – nearly 4 billlion hectares.  But since agriculture began 11,000 years ago, the natural forests have been reduced by 40 per cent.  Three quarters of this loss took place during the last two centuries, in order to clear land for farming and because of the demand for wood.

A brass screw broken off and left in a trunk lid where once it was one of 5 screws holding firmly one of two hinges, can be quite a daunting task to remove without leaving a large hole in its place.

The remainder of the screw head is too short  and too soft to grab with a pair of vice grips and turn to remove from the wood.

Over the past holiday season, I was inspired with a unique idea for candle holders.  As some of you may know by now, I truly hate to throw anything "old" away or worse into the kindling bin.  So I decided to take some of my various structural beam end-cuts that were not big enough for table legs or most anything else and created wonderful candle holders for the holidays (or for anytime of the year).  First I sanded and finished them, then cut square holes just the right size to insert glass votive candles holder.  They make beautiful and practical centerpieces for the dining table or most anywhere you want to place a candle.  If you're looking for a unique gift this just may be the ticket!

At a client's request, we recently designed a new coffee table leg made from walnut pictured below.  We call it the octagon leg.  It adds a subtle refinement to a reclaimed wood coffee table.

We also offer two other designs.  The first one is our old stand-by  hand turned Windsor coffee table leg made from pine pictured below.  Steve designed this leg with his mentor over 30 years ago.  We call it our Windsor style leg because of the up-sweep at the bottom of the leg, which goes well with authentic Windsor chairs.  He also turns a longer version of this Windsor style leg for our dining tables.