ok, claro wlanut, i love this wood ... fancy, warm, vibrantly figured most of the time, stable, flat; its all good ... and we have made a lot of stuff with it. lately, as we get more requests for custom pieces, i have come to feel the need to have some photos of our different items in one place ... a sort of, here, this about sums it up link, so i dont have to get a picture here, get another picture there, find a picture of that specific table base .... etc, etc. if you make custom stuff for other people, and have been doing it for a while, youll know what i mean ... anychoice; here goes ... please click the photos to enlarge them ...
first up, cause i like the warm and fuzzy photo at the top, is this coffee table we made for a client in the boston area, who actually had the luxury of keeping it on her covered porch along with a collection of our outdoor lounge chairs ... for more info on this project, check out this blog post ...
sometimes, at the end of a project we even get letters like the one above .. my home has been trumped by the table ... hmmmm, i doubt it, cause ive seen photos of the house, but its a nice compliment, regardless. it goes with the table on the crossbuck base below, and the original blog post from 2008 is here. i think that one may be the one that started it all for us ... 
but heres another early one, and the first table we did with the solid steel base, what we refer to as our shaker style legs ... learning process on that one ... but, we got er done, and have done many others with that style legs in both bright and blackened steel the original blog post is here ...
we made a little model first on the cnc and sprayed it with the krylon metalllic paint. looks like the real thing, only a tenth as big ...
the finished table, cut from its background
birds eye view of the grain in the top ...
sometimes we have to assist mother nature in getting the shape exactly right
but alls well that ends well ....
this was a big one ... about 4 wide and 11 long ... original blog post here ...
and above is another letter from a happy desk client ... some drawers and secret compartments made for a really special desk ... this was a recent one from late last year ... more info here
we start with slabs like this one; in fact we bought four from goodhope, from the same log and used them for the desk above, the table below, the table we have in our current show at the southern vermont arts center, and we still have one more available on out wall that you can see a couple photos down ...
this was a fantastic piece of wood when it was all polished up, and its now happy in its new home in the hamptons ... california to goodhope hardwoods in pennsylvania to vermont, to east hampton .... lots of miles on most of these. we have two to montana, about a 6000 mile trip !!
several tables have our ladderback chairs in one form or another ... these above sport nice bomber jacket leather seats.
the raw material ... often, not perfect, though with lots and lots of potential ...
this one heads off to england next week in a pair of crates via ocean freight. even more miles on that one ... this has a new base design based on our designer clients input ... again, a model was helpful in determining the final proportions ... more info here ...
the leg assemblies are drilled tapped and bolted together and can be easily shipped flat, in pieces.
and we often add butterflies to both decorate and stabilize the cracks.
this one is in our current show at the southern vermont arts center in nearby manchester.
great figure and grain character in this one ... 
and this is the last slab from the spectacular log you have seen in some of the previous pictures. its from closest to the center of the log and probably has, actually, the best figure yet. it was completely cracked into two pieces when it arrived, and we intend, in the end, to probably use it as two pieces, connected by butterflies, but separated as above by a 1/4 inch or so. even without finish the color is amazing ... call now to discuss your options ...
sometimes a client will select a slab from the goodhope specials or coffee table slab page and we add just simple wooden or polished steel pipe bases. keep it simple stupid ... 
and now were at the sawbuck base table that goes with the letter at the top ... 
solid, twist and reverse twisted 1.25" steel crosspiece by sam in the metal shop ...
or we can weld other steel base designs from structural stock ... these pieces were fabricated by sam in the metal shop from 3/4" stock and some round, 1.5" solid bar stock
more info on this project here ... again with the models ... love em ...
some polished or black pipe legs .. instant coffee table
this bed and side table assembly went to florida and is made from a pair of american, not claro walnut, but spectacular nonetheless. i post it with the claro pieces because the design could easily be made using a claro slab as well ...
and sometimes we get to make a little bench for a new york city apartment entrance hall ... this one is 36" x 15". small, but i love the form and it opens up the possibility for others like it as well as new dining table base designs.
specs and shapes of our available leg designs, all of which can be customized and made heavier, lighter, wider, or shorter, as you wish. our most popular is the one above, in 1.5" thick steel.
and pretty much any welded shape you can come up with can be fabricated by sam in our in house custom metal shop
and here, ill talk VERY GENERALLY AND UNSPECIFICALLY about prices ...these prices of these tables are directly related to what we have to pay for the wood slab, delivered to our shop. a rule of thumb seems to be, or could be about $1000. to $1400. per lineal foot of table ... anychoice, thats a place to start, but the final price could be more or less than that, if, for example, you select an extra wide, extra long, or figured slab, or one with some extra character from the specials page. each project is priced individually with the cost of the wood being the main factor ...we sell the leg assemblies separately. the solid, waterjetted, 1.5" thick sets start at $3500. as drawn and pictured in the natural finish. for the black or rainbow patina, add $400. there is a separate upcharge for custom shapes and 1.75" thick stock. for each design that upcharge is different. custom shape and thickness quotes on request. shipping for the bases in the northeast would be +/- 250-350. nationwide quotes are available with your shipping address.
so, here, this about sums it up for claro walnut for now ... but i also feel like we have just scratched the surface ...
other walnut blogs posts at the links below:
a dozen big ones
how much does a claro walnut slab table cost?
one for sale right now
Senin, 04 April 2016
an astonishing house frame
my friend malcolm cooper and i took a little 20 mile ride up the valley to middletown springs a couple of weeks ago. we were on a mission to get some barnboards from our friend dan mckeen for a project in malcolms store, at j.k.adams in dorset. well, we got the barnboards and a tour of a truly amazing piece of woodworking ... dan is a timber frame specialist, known for salvaging and restoring hand hewn frames ... after 35 years or so of it, even he was a little amazed by this one ... im sure i dont remember the whole conversation, so my facts may be a little off, but i think i got the gist of it ... click the photos to enlarge them ... cool story ..
a friend of dans contacted him to offer him a house that he had purchased. he was going to tear it down and build something new and modern on the site and thought dan might be interested.
it was billed as the oldest standing house in danby, and, under the siding, it was a beauty ... in the top photo, you can see the 1795 date scribed onto one of the timbers and i believe it ... dan, i think, referred to it as dutch style with full length, dovetailed logs on the first floor and a chestnut post and beam upper floor and roof structure ...
from the spacing of the rafters, dan has speculated that it was to be a fine residence, with the roof framed on 24" centers, much closer than normal at that time, probably to support the weight of a locally fabricated slate roof.
interesting rafter to plate joint that i have never seen before ... on the lower floor, it appears that the logs were full length when dovetailed and scribed together and then the windows and doors were cut out after the fact ... dan says there are substantial wood pegs every so often on each log that were inserted as the logs were stacked and he just put them back in there as he went ...
beautiful!
heres an inside shot of the angled window cuts and little bit of the accordion lathe and plaster tracks.
also on the same site was an angled wall corn crib with heavy angled framing that was disassembled and attached, in the end, to the main house when dan reerected below, for storage and display at his shop ...
i dont remember the reason for the angles of the walls on corncribs, but i know there is one ... actually heres something from wikipedia about it ...
lookin good once it was cleaned up ..
the angled dovetailed cross beams ...
and now the reassembly ... as dan tells it, there was some rot at the ground level so he started by laying a level 286" x 36 hemlock frame and then
stacked the frame up a log at a time
lincoln logs for sure
then the purlins and roof framing
and the roof boards ...
and the corn crib ...
its ready to be taken down and reassembled on your site, which i think should be a museum or public space of some kind, as an unbelievable example of extremely uncommon and fantastic hand hewn carpentry ...
contact dan for more info .... get yourself a piece of history ...
