2/17 OK ... were almost underchoice on a new Claro walnut slab top table ... This one is for a kitchen in Connecticut and as you can see from the 1/6th scale model above, its a long narrow one ... The slab will be about 32-34 " in width and about 10 long after its cut .... It left today or will leave soon from Good Hope Hardwoods in Kemblesville, PA, and it should arrive here early next week .... Over the last ten years I have gotten 5 or six claro slabs, several big bubinga boards and a couple really wide pieces of 8/4 cherry. They have a great new website too. Check it out .. Find a board and well build a table for you ... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...
After looking at 4 or 5 options, this is the one we chose ... Well have to doctor the flares a bit and trim it too length, but it looks like a beauty. 
We took the inspiration for our 1.5" thick steel base from this Shaker table from the 1800s
CAD drawing of the base parts ... We originally were going to cut pieces and weld them back together, but it occurred to us that steel was at least as cheap as welding and grinding and well probably get a smoother item.
To be sure we had it right, we cut a couple of plywood samples on the cnc and mocked up the look with a slab I have on hand that is looking for a home ... desk anyone? Its 30 to 42 wide and about 7 long .. (4/4 ...This slab has since been sold and will be a coffee table .. )
American black walnut ... Better picture of that slab here ...
Updated 2/23/2010 ... The wood arrived from Goodhope Hardwoods today. And, its a real beauty ... Ive only made a few passes to get a sense of how it is, and yessir .. it is really nice ... Below is a small puddle of alcohol we splashed on the curly end .... Lots of figure ...
Below I have chalked it to indicate where we plan to cut it to the clients size specs .. +/- 34-35 x 10
Updated 2 19 ... The metal for the table base is done ... well tie them together next week with some 3/8 x 2" steel across the top where the notch is and add the braces to that ...Base parts, last Friday ... Now that we have the slab, well work on that soon too ...
One end polished slightly
All in , all done .... miracle recovery .... descriptive post below
We finished a couple of interesting repairs last week and I was sending photos to clients so I thought I would post them here too ... The bureau above is one of the last pieces of furniture we have to restore that was damaged in the fire I have occasionally written about. I thought it was a goner as it took several days in the sun to even get it open, and when we finally did, it really didnt look too promising ... Looks can be deceiving though and by the time Jim stripped the smoked shellac and sanded the interior and resealed it, I was starting to be just a little more optimistic. Click the photos to enlarge them ...
Here, Jim has stripped off the toasted shellac and sanded the interior, which he is now coating with a seal coat of shellac and wax to get rid of the smoke odor.
There were then some repair necessary to the face that that you can see in the first photo above ...
I chipped off what was left of the round corners and replaced them with new veneers. The masking tape was a good trick. It allowed me to bend the veneers cold without the pieces breaking or separating, kind of like a paper backed veneer would be, only thicker...
I taped them in place with the repair mans friend, 3M 2040 masking tape, a stretchy but strong and sticky clamp..
The stripped and sanded drawers ... Whats up with that top one? ..
We applied a thin coat of aniline dye, recoating some elements a couple of times to balance the color, and then shellaced with a wash coat of diluted fresh amber shellac. Well build slowly in thin coats from here until we reach the desired shine, which will not be too terribly shiny ... The hardware has been cleaned and reantiqued and is ready to go back on when the finish is complete ... I think it will look like a million bucks when its done ...
Another fire victim in the before stage ....
In the almost finished stage. The brass was polished and then reantiqued and the shellac was built slowly as mentioned above ... We finished the top with a coat of black patinating wax which was perfect for the job .... The Revere bowl was totally black and looked almost hopeless before Jim got to work on it ...
This is another repair that came through recently from Hildene, Robert Todd Lincolns home, in Manchester, Vermont. We had a huge windstorm a couple of weeks ago, which blew open the French doors at the house and knocked the table across the room
Before ...
After
Ahhh ... where to start? This is going to be a long one ... But a satisfying one for us ... It involves an interpretation of a bed we made 3 or 4 years ago, some old friends I have been working with for a really long time, and an exciting new concept ...metal bird inlays, specifically, ducks .... We started with a rough, quick Cad drawing ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
From the drawing we made a full size mockup up using new post templates we made up for this design.They are based on other beds we have made in the past, but had to be resized for this king version.
I then took the mockup to their house to compare with their present bed. I made the original queen size bed (this will be a king) as a wedding present in the mid 80s ... At that point, we considered varying the duck profiles but returned to the simpler more symmetrical layout ...
From that mockup, we worked up a new rough design which I am in the process of refining right now ... The duck inlays on this bed will be made of copper, steel and brass, instead of the abalone inlays on the original...
This is a fuller picture of the original bed, made for a member at the Winous Point Shooting Club outside of Cleveland, one of the oldest in the country.
Will turned the posts, roughing them out on the duplicator and refining/finishing them freehand.
The Vega makes incredibly quick work of getting the main blanks all exactly the same. Its the handturning and in this case, the hand carving that give them their handmade quality in the end.
Off the duplicator and ready for hand turning ... you you figure out how to sharpen the cutter properly, it is unbelievable how quickly and cleanly these can be turned ...
This process is a refined version identical to one I detailed earlier for a recycled chestnut table we made last summer. These clients have a table we made with similarly carved legs , which are actually the first spiral carvings we did. You can see the mahogany mockup leg we did for that table a couple shots above.
Close up of the layout process which is detailed here for a 6 part spiral. This one is an 8 part spiral
This bed will have four carved walnut pine cones topping each of the posts ...
Where we were yesterday ... Will completed the bed bolt joinery today and we will assemble the frame next to check the final headboard size ... Updates later ...
