planing walnut beam

Oct 6

One of the best features of this type of sawmill is that the cutting head moves across the lumber, leaving this oversized lumber stationary. Here, we've replaced the 60" wide blade with a small carbide planer head. After 1 to 5 years of drying these slabs can't help but move a bit. So, once the moisture content has dropped to appropriate levels, we plan them back off here. The pic to the left is of a really thick walnut slab. I'm hoping to complete one more piece (a heavy bench) to take with us to High Point next week.

Robin Wade

Robin Wade Furniture is a celebration of nature—a melding of a forward thinking commitment to the environment and a quiet, harmonious design aesthetic. From his "slow studio" in North Alabama, award-winning wood artist Robin Wade designs and crafts one-of-a-kind handmade furniture. Years before a piece is ready to enter a client's home or a gallery, the process begins—naturally—with the tree. Sustainably harvested, each specimen of hardwood is flitch sawn into natural-edge wood slabs, debarked by hand with a draw knife, and stacked to dry, usually for years, before the final cure in the kiln. From here, Wade and his team use both hand and power tools to bring Wade's vision to life, and then finish each piece with a hand-rubbed oil blend. Each organic furniture creation by Robin Wade Furniture balances the raw, natural beauty of environmentally, locally sourced hardwoods with minimally invasive, clean lines—a juxtaposition Wade calls both rustic and modern. “I haven’t yet found a better artist than nature,” he says.

robinwadefurniture.com

planing walnut beam

Linda's sushi lunch yesterday

Frank Stitts on last night's Nightline