Tables ● Desks ● Slabs
…Art in the form of fine furniture
It all starts with the tree removal (or recovery).
Is that tree getting too big, or is it too close to your house for comfort? Our fully insured tree experts have over 40 years of tree removal experience. No job is too small or too big.
Call to meet with our arborist for a free quote.
Or call us to recover any large logs you need removed from your property. (30” or larger diameter)
Only select trees make the cut.
Occasionally we come across a tree that speaks to us, like the 50” diameter sycamore pictured here. We take these beauties home so we can turn it into 3” slabs and ultimately make kitchen tables, dining tables, coffee tables, end tables, sofa tables, conference tables, desks, bars, mantles…well, you get the idea. We specialize in single-slab and book-matched slab furniture.
Then we slab it.
With a 6-foot chain saw and an Alaskan sawmill (from New England Pine of Granby, CT), we slice these monster sticks into 2-3” thick slabs. Every cut reveals the unique beauty within the log. You never know what you will find!
Sometimes, we make cookies.
Occasionally, the specific log, or maybe the custom order, calls for making cookies. In this case, we cut 3-5” thick slices off the end. Typically, this is done when we find a specially aged, or spalted, log like this spalted sugar maple shown here. The spalting is actually caused by the fungus the attacks the trees when they are aging and produces a spectacular effect. See the project gallery for a sample finished coffee table.
Stacking & Drying.
Patience is key. These slabs need to be carefully leveled and stacked with ‘sticker’ spacers so the air can freely flow between each slab. Most species need to sit and dry naturally for 1 year per inch thick. When a slab is selected for a customer’s project, it is kiln dried to ensure that the slab has reached a uniform moisture content and is free of insects.
We designed and built our own router sled flattening jig. It is equipped with heavy duty linear bearings and a 3.5HP router. Our ‘manual CNC machine’ can accommodate slabs up to 5-1/2’ wide x 14’ long. We’ve come close a couple times, but we have yet find a 66” wide tree!
Flattening.
Jointing (book-matching).
Once the slabs are flattened, they are ready to become a table, desk, counter, or whatever you want them to become! In some cases, such as with the book-match style table below, joinery is required. Book-matching is the method where 2 adjacent (and therefore nearly identical on 2 sides) slabs are joined together in order to form a symmetrical line down the centerline of the table. A partial live edge was incorporated into the centerline of the table below, which will ultimately be filled with epoxy.
Epoxy is used to ‘clean up’ things like checks (relatively large stress cracks that occur during the drying process), knots, worm holes, and other natural blemishes that you don’t normally encounter when working with traditional dimensional lumber. Most importantly, epoxy provides us with infinite design possibilities such as the partial live edge book-matched joint (pictured here) or the ability to add a touch of color to your custom piece. So many beautiful pieces of wood would have to be scrapped due to rot damage, instability or lack of structural integrity if it weren’t for epoxy resin and the imagination of our customers and designers.
Epoxy.
Finishing.
Sand, sand, sand some more, and then sand even more. Surface preparation for these large surfaces can take days! A final pass with a scraper can do the trick sometimes as well. Painstaking attention to detail is crucial to turning out a high-end finish, especially when epoxy is involved.
Testimonials
“We commissioned Woodgeeks to design and build a custom ash epoxy dining table. They walked us through the whole process from selecting our own slabs, epoxy color, slab layout, and ultimately the finish. The finished product speaks for itself. Amazing craftsmanship.”
— Charlie D.
“I wanted a unique piece of ‘art’ for my office desk. Woodgeeks spoke to me about my ideas, and came back with an amazing design made out of an incredible piece of spalted maple. The finish was incredible. I liked it so much, they talked me into a matching (same tree) spalted maple cookie coffee table that was equally stunning.”
— Gianna P.
