Wonderful idea

well, we shipped out a couple more fine slabs of claro walnut from goodhope hardwoods today. ive been buying slabs from them for about 10 years now and ive never been disappointed. these two were no exception ... click the photos to enlarge them ...

a crotch slab my client found for me in the specials section on their website, a category that comes and goes as needed apparently. this client chose the same simple block base we have used on tables like this before ...

the table above is part of our shaker series with 1.5" thick solid steel bases. this client wanted to have his base blackened, a patina process we do with a chemical called redi brown from, i think, triple s chemicals ? in LA. ill have to look it up.

sam did a beautiful job applying the patina and neutralizing it, and we then sprayed on a couple coats of clear satin metal finish.

we started with two of these slabs ... the one on the wall we previously made into a coffee table and shipped it to aspen; the horizontal one is now the coffee table above, and the one on top of the stack standing vertically became the dining table.

here trevors chiseling in the butterfly keys to restrain the natural drying cracks.

ready to plane flush ...

off to the finish room for its first coat of gloss ...

and today, jim took off in the town and country for north east hampton, long island. i cant feel too sorry for anyone who gets paid to take six ferry rides over two days, even if it is a long drive ... he was ready to go when he left. youve got to be at least a little amazed that we can get two 7 plus tables and 8 chairs in here and still have room for more, even if there will be some assembly required on delivery ... and, its a smooth ride to boot ... almost wish i were going myself ... next time for sure ...



other claro walnut tables

50 x 120 x 3" thick

36 x 120 x 2.25" thick

a 5/4 coffee table

36 x 94 x 1/25"

ok, the top one arrived in florida on tuesday, just in time for turkey day.  the curly one above has been hanging around the shop since may, waiting for the clients home remodel to be finished.  that one will leave for brooklyn on tuesday.  it was first pictured in this post  back on may 28th and now soon it will be on its way.  click the photos to enlarge them.

the top table started with this monster slab, about 11 long and 3+ inches thick.  we learned a few tricks on this one.  it was a heavy one ....
one trick we learned was to build a really substantial and well made cart with serious casters.  once we slid it off the workbench and stood it up on the cart. it was a piece of cake to get it out the shop door, on a ramp into the back of the truck, and into steves shop for the matte finish that the client requested.

the client selected our trapedzoid base, and sam cut the parts and welded them up in our metal shop.
later, after polishing, the base was blackened with our normal blackening patina and sealed with a low lustre lacquer.
there were a couple cracks we had to butterfly and one or two random small defects that we just left as is.


there was one sort of large (+/- 3/8ths") bolt in the slab that we drilled a bit and pounded a bit until it was below the surface enough to fill it so it looked like some of the other knots in the area.  pretty good in the end.
i got a wonderful email from the client wednesday and i think ill use his comment as our new business motto .... better than i expected ... can you ask for more than that?