I'm making a small table in walnut, using up the rest of the nice warm, colorful, air dried, hard to get, mid-western, thick and figured wood that was originally harvested in the 70's by an older gent in Ohio. By himself he used a truck and trailer to haul these huge logs, he would pull along side a log in the forest, unhook the trailer, run a ramp from log to trailer, run a cable under the log and over to the truck on the other side of the trailer bed, then drive slowly to roll it up onto the bed. Then he'd drive it to the circular saw mill and after setting the teeth on the dished round blade, slice it into thick and heavy planks. Then they went onto stickers in piles and covered with a metal roof to air dry, nothing covering the sides of the pile. One year per inch of thickness is minimum for air drying wood in an Ohio yearly season. In the 90's I found this guy and started buying wood from him, over the years I made some great pieces and projects out of those piles. Cherry, walnut, maple, oak, sassafrass, catalpa, elm, hack berry, ash, and a few others.
If you've ever pushed a sharp plane over an air dried piece of walnut you know how sweet it is. The crisp sound and the almost organic feel of the open pores and the grain. Sand it some and the smells are really nice. Polish it and add some oil and there is the wood like it was worked in the old days, a little elbow grease and mother nature mixed together. Now I just hope I can design something of merit and use the right proportions and the right scale, the right joinery. Maybe I'll do it some justice, we'll have to see. If all my experience can wrap into this little piece, just the right touch, the right subtle move, to make the shape look just right, not too much off the taper, don't push the fancy detail, make the drawers smooth and run right, make the stance look and feel good. I know what the piece will look like, I can almost see it in my minds eye. The sketch looks right, the wood is good, no mistakes now. Then when I'm done in a few weeks, I'll let it go out of my shop and into a clients home. Thats where it belongs so I can get on with another one, a short time spent with each piece from concept to real piece.
I'm making a small table in walnut, using up the rest of the nice warm, colorful, air dried, hard to get, mid-western, thick and figured wood that was originally harvested in the 70's by an older gent in Ohio. By himself he used a truck and trailer to haul these huge logs, he would pull along side a log in the forest, unhook the trailer, run a ramp from log to trailer, run a cable under the log and over to the truck on the other side of the trailer bed, then drive slowly to roll it up onto the bed. Then he'd drive it to the circular saw mill and after setting the teeth on the dished round blade, slice it into thick and heavy planks. Then they went onto stickers in piles and covered with a metal roof to air dry, nothing covering the sides of the pile. One year per inch of thickness is minimum for air drying wood in an Ohio yearly season. In the 90's I found this guy and started buying wood from him, over the years I made some great pieces and projects out of those piles. Cherry, walnut, maple, oak, sassafrass, catalpa, elm, hack berry, ash, and a few others.
If you've ever pushed a sharp plane over an air dried piece of walnut you know how sweet it is. The crisp sound and the almost organic feel of the open pores and the grain. Sand it some and the smells are really nice. Polish it and add some oil and there is the wood like it was worked in the old days, a little elbow grease and mother nature mixed together. Now I just hope I can design something of merit and use the right proportions and the right scale, the right joinery. Maybe I'll do it some justice, we'll have to see. If all my experience can wrap into this little piece, just the right touch, the right subtle move, to make the shape look just right, not too much off the taper, don't push the fancy detail, make the drawers smooth and run right, make the stance look and feel good. I know what the piece will look like, I can almost see it in my minds eye. The sketch looks right, the wood is good, no mistakes now. Then when I'm done in a few weeks, I'll let it go out of my shop and into a clients home. Thats where it belongs so I can get on with another one, a short time spent with each piece from concept to real piece.
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