logs to furniture

Time to surrender

2012-02-13T16:24:00.000-08:00

You can stack and sticker and level. You air dry and pile weight on top. You band it and stack it on top of other piles.You do everything you can think ok to hold movement to a minimum.
Then you open the kiln doors and start unpiling wood. BOIGGG. Sounds like something Wiley E. Coyote would have happen. You put 2500 feet in the kiln and put thousands of pounds of weight on it. But nature has a way of messing with your head. The pictures above are of a few pieces of flame birch. They look like the yellow brick road in the wizard of Oz. I have one that is a half round. If I had one of those round top windows, I would not have to steam bend it.

This is some wonderful figured birch. But sometimes, whatever you do is not enough. I chopped these into shorter pieces. Then I chopped the shorter pieces into shorter shorter pieces. I ran a face over the jointer. I then moved some of the pieces to the scrap barrel. Sometimes you just need to know when its time to surrender.

I have a lot of new stock that will be going into the kiln in the next week or so. I will be taking some shots of stuff before then, I hope. Let me know if you are looking for anything.

box sides and lumber shipments

2012-01-11T15:01:00.000-08:00

The new year has started out very well. Got lots of stuff shipped this week. Working on the details of the grandfather clock and the spice chest with Charles Neil. Hope to get some stuff finalized soon, so I can get the material and figure out some pricing options. See the links at Charles' site about these 2 projects. They will be beauties..
http://intheworkshop.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/spice-chest-townsend-clock-wood-kits/

I will be writing another wood newsletter. If you want a copy, email me at bob at bobkloes.com or go to my website and email from there. www.bobkloes.com

Got some super flame birch. Make beautiful furniture and cabinets.

This is the top half of a flame birch chimney cupboard. It was done in a lockwood dye. I love the reds on flame birch. Charles just did a table in flame birch he got from me. It is in his paid video series.
I will say this. I have been building furniture since 1979. I have been watching his paid show since it started. I have learned something with every piece he has done. I have read books and watched lots of guys teach and show. Nothing quite compares to his. Its down and dirty and mistakes happen. That's what makes it so good. Mistakes happen to all of us. The only difference is, the more years you have doing something, the better you are at fixing the problems. That is where he shines. Just lots of good info and solid building techniques. If I can learn, anyone can. It is worth the money, hands down. For less then the cost of a fancy handplane, you can get a whole year's worth of shows.

Well I guess that is it for now. We have had such nice weather. I don't recall too many years here in north east Wisconsin with 50 degree days the first week of January, but tomorrow we are getting snow, so the dead brown grass will be covered. Hope it doesn't last too long. Take care.

Log sets and a couple of small slabs, organic wood

2011-12-29T08:41:00.000-08:00

I have had some questions about log sets. So I thought the best way is to blog about it and take some pictures.

Log sets are what I get when I can sort out the lumber and get all the boards from 1 tree in a group. Its easier said then done. I can't ask the mill to sort it, they are way too busy. Besides, sorting 10 boards from several thousand is not their business. But it is mine. Years ago, I never paid much mind to sorting boards except for some bookmatches. I was using plain cherry, walnut and ash, oak, etc. Doing a kitchen, it never made much to do about grain matching or color matching.

As I grew into more and better furniture building, it made sense to look for , say , cherry that was all the same color. Made it much easier to color and finish. When I started to get into building figured wood, I was so excited to find it, I didn't care if it was from 1 tree or ten thousand. I took what I could find. Got some great stuff and some not so great. As I get smarter{I hope} I look for the best and what makes it that way. Its how I meet Charles Neil years ago. I had bought trees before meeting him and knew about matching lumber. What I didn't know was how much better any piece is because of log sets. Especially in figured woods. Now I still buy lots of wood and I don't get a lot of matched sets. But I do try and pull what I can when I do find them.

Yesterday, I was bringing lumber into the shop and needed a set of hard tiger maple for an upcoming piece. I pulled out a set I had put aside this fall.

Notice how is it all nice bright white? I have trimmed the ends, so I can't show you that. But the ends are the best way to pull a log set for me. I look for the same cut on one end, then look for any knots, bark ect. that all comes in the same spot. Its pretty neat when you get all the boards pulled and you can see how they all show the same quality and figure and color.

When you see figure this nice in rough lumber, you know it is going to be great. The boards run from 4" wide up to 11" wide. All are eight feet long. Stock like this is not inexpensive. The going rate I sell it for starts at 10$ per board foot and goes up. This is hard curly maple , which is much more scarce the soft curly maple. I can buy 500 feet of soft curly, or more for every foot of hard curly I find. And most hard curly does not have this intense figure. I have never found any hardwood grading rules for figure, except from the musical instrument industry. They give A ratings . I am not sure how that works, but after looking at many sites and wood pictures this is as good as I have ever seen. Tight consistant and goes all across the width of the boards. This will make a spectacular piece.

The last piece I did with a matched set was this step back cupboard.

Yes the lid lifts and it is a secret space. But the grain showed up from 50 feet away. This was soft curly maple. The customer really liked it.

Here is a shot of the end of a board that I cut off the log set above. It's how I ask loggers to look for figure in the log.

See the ripples? That is how the curl looks under the bark.

Now about the slabs. I did a few benches/ tables out of some black ash and hard maple. I get these small slabs and they make nice small benches and coffee tables/end tables.

This is a slab of red oak with a nice limb section in it. The bark comes off real nice. I also brought down a couple hard maple ones that are a book match.

These will be cut in half so they are about 48" long. The bark will be taken off and then the edges and ends treated like this.
http://www.cn-woodworking.com/creating-a-live-edge/
It makes for a better sell to the customer.

I think that is all for now. Email me. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, bob

Shaping box sides and running molding

2011-12-27T14:53:00.000-08:00

I have had some questions about how I shape the box sides for the kits for the Charles Neil box.
http://intheworkshop.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/my-boxes-finished/

I start with rough sawn 5/4 curly maple.

I cut this into 24" long pieces and run 1 face over my old jointer to get a somewhat flat face.. I then take it and plane to 1 and 3/16" thick. I then joint 1 edge square. Take to the table saw and rip to rough width. I then joint 1 edge again. The rip to final width, in this case 4 and 3/4" wide.
Now the fun part starts. Can you feel the grain in a fresh planed board and tell what direction it goes? I have to, no choice. I first mark to top face of the board in chalk. I then look at and feel the edges to see which way the grain runs. With figured wood , its like cat fur. Its not easy, but you best figure it out. When I run this through the molder, I can't lose it with chips being ripped out and grain torn. Makes expensive charcoal. [That's another story for another time. Yes I do make charcoal out of scrap wood] It not a perfect method, but it helps if I can tell which way the grain runs , so I can see where the piece will feed the best through the molder. I mark an arrow showing me the way I want it to run. Then I have to figure out which way the molding will go through the molder. It all takes time.

Once that is all done and marked on the board, I lay out the molding on the end of a piece, so I can cut rabbets down the piece to make it easier to run the piece through the molder without taking so much meat out in 2 cuts. Yes this molding is done in 2 cuts in figured wood with a 1984 Williams and Hussey molder. Pretty darn good machine.
Here is what the rabbets look like in the boards.

Next , you set up the molder and check your depth of cut. You need 3/8" on either side of the molding for the feed rollers to grab on to. You can see the heartwood in some of the pieces above. I can still get good stock out of all that, as long as the heartwood does not show up in the front side. It does not bother me if there is heartwood in the inside of the box. Plus the figure deeper in the log is always better.

Next I start running the pieces through. Here is the first pass. I need to get a dust hood for this machine. It is blowing out lots of shavings and pieces. If you stand in the way , its like getting peppered with buckshot.

After everything is run through once, you make 1 turn of the handle and do the second pass.

Once they are done with the second pass , comes quality control. You look at each piece and cull out any with chips, torn grain or dark heartwood on the show face. I have a pile of stock that I have set off to the side. I can still cut side pieces from it, it just will not be all from 1 board. Some will just be burned. I want to give some away to the local high school for kids to try and make some boxes. They don't have to be the same size of box. But at least the kids can make some use out of it.

This is what they look like after the first pass.

Here they are after the second pass. This run turned out real nice. I am sending out about another 8 kits today. Let me know if any of you still want some sides or kits. Other wise I will tear the machine down and change over to something else. I can always make up more, but it will not be the fast turnaround as right now. Thanks for reading. Hope this is interesting.

Pretty nice looking grain.

A note to woodworkers

2011-12-17T04:01:00.000-08:00

I have gotten a number of emails about the lumber I use and sell. Just wanted to let you all know, I really appreciate the emails and business. If you are looking for figured domestic hardwoods, let me know. I carry a lot of things in curly cherry, flame birch , tiger maple and birdseye maple. You can email me at
info at bobkloes.com
Just replace the at with @.
I do send out newsletters with wood for sale listed. I also have lots of things on hand , like hard maple burls and some 1 of a kind pieces. Check out my web site
www.bobkloes.com and see what I build. I am always happy to answer questions or help get you the right lumber for your project.

This is the stepback with the secret space under the lid and secret drawers

This is the ogee bracket foot off the stepback above

This is a tiger maple slab table I did with a good partner who does all the metal and stone work. Hope you enjoy. bob

Loading the kiln

2011-12-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

Came home yesterday with a load of beautiful wet, green lumber. I got 8/4 birdseye maple, 8/4 and 4/4 flame birch and 4/4 curly hard maple. There is about 800ft, maybe more or less. I was driving with a friend of mine and we had his V10 ford truck. Nice truck. And I am not a ford guy. It was noticeable pulling this load. The roads were icy and sleet and snow was falling. Weatherman said it was sunny. Somehow, I need to find a job like that. Got the load back about 6 hours after we left home. Took it to the sawmill and drykiln guy I use. His name is Bob to. Come to think of it, the guy I drove with was named Bob too. 3 Bobs. No comment...
The load was too big to lift off the trailer with the bobcat[another bob]. I got on the back end , but it didn't do anything. So, we pulled part of the load off and dumped it on the landing. He came back and again I climbed on the back of the bobcat, this time it almost lifted it without coming up on the back end. Thankfully, my butt was enough to hold it almost down to get it unloaded.
Today, Bob called me and said it was time to load the kiln, but he was busy with his own project, so I went over and loaded. Good God , that stuff didn't get any lighter over night.

This is a piece of 8/4 birdseye, almost 14 or 15" wide and 12 feet long. It weighs about 32000 lbs. I think...

This is some 8/4 and 4/4 flame birch. Notice the red heartwood in the birch. It is the color of cherry. This is what they call unselected for color. Means they allow both heartwood and sap in the same piece. I dye this a cherry color and it looks great when its done. I can't wait to turn some legs from the 8/4 stock. All this stuff is just beautiful.

Another shot of the flame birch.

Notice the wide board on the bottom left? That is a 17" wide piece of 4/4 hard tiger maple. I got the stock from 1 tree and its all nice wide clear heavy tiger maple. Its the same as the 8/4 birdseye stock. That all came from 1 tree also. I call those log sets. Once they are dried, I keep all the pieces together. That way, the color for a project is all the same. The price on logs sets is about double or triple regular stock. I don't get things like this very often at all. I have to keep track of these and it takes space and time.

This is some of the birdseye stock, it was from a veneer log that wasn't white enough, I guess. Sure am glad I got it. This is all 12 feet long.

Another shot of the birdseye.

More flame birch.

Notice the top piece? It is called bark inclusion hard maple. Very striking. Its one of those woods you either really like or not. I happen to like it. A lot. Again all from 1 tree.

From the bottom, birdseye maple, bark inclusion hard maple and hard tiger maple.

In the middle of loading this, I had to run to pick up some pieces from a show I did last weekend. I got the truck loaded and came back and finished. I am now home, took some ibuprofen and will eat some dinner. Its been a long day and my butt is dragging.

Lumber shipping, and all the related fun

2011-12-01T14:48:00.000-08:00

This past week has been a flurry of cutting planing,measuring, cutting, measuring, cutting cardboard,wrapping and measureing and weighing. I don't think the sisters who taught me would like that sentence. My apologies Sisters.

I have been cutting and wrapping and sending box kits out all over the USA for Charles Neil's box build. As a one man shop, I have my furniture to build and business to take care of. Then you get about 25 orders and it kind of takes away what you are doing. Not that I am complaining at all. I love the contact with folks about lumber. I enjoy buying lumber and all the related things that go with it. Lifting , hauling, more lifting, more hauling. Hey , its good exercise.

When making up the kits, I always try and give a little extra. Mistakes happen. I have made so many, well, I am just glad I am still here.I got a list from Charles and then started going through piles and piles and pulling stock. Then you crosscut and figure and flip and flop boards. I found I had a lot of 5/4 with some heartwood on 1 side. I can deal with it, but a lot of folks don't know how. So I have a big pile of stuff for me to use on something else. That is an issue when you buy material. You can spec anything you want, but the more you want, the more it costs.
I try and give out all the material they will need and I also look at the grain and what the piece will be used for. I had some nice quartersawn curly cherry that went into some of the kits for feet and trim. It will look very nice. One thing, with small pieces like these tend to be, you kind of lost the curl figure in the cherry, because your parts are small and the figure is more broad. Flame birch wouldn't really look like much on a small box like this. You could use it for the sides. Then you will get to see the curl. But small parts are just that. Too small to show much.
I also try and mark the face or show side on the tiger maple. For whatever reason, tiger maple is the wood the shows best on the bark side of the board. The figure on the other side is never as good and does not show as well. Don't try book matching it. One piece looks great and one looks like plain maple. Its one question I really want to ask the big guy upstairs. Flame birch is kind of like that too. No issues with curly cherry or curly walnut. This is one of those weird wood facts you can use to astound your friends. Yeah, I wonder why I don't have more friends....
Anyway, I got a bunch gone and some more packed up. I am waiting on a few more folks to get back to me with some answers and then I will finish those too. Then you load the truck and drive to Green Bay,[home of the Packers], yes I am a big fan. I use Fed EX for shipping so I get to print out labels, tape them on to my wonderfully packaged wood and ship them on their way. I am understanding more why companies having shipping and packing departments and how much supplies cost. I spent 150$ just on cardboard. Then you get strapping stuff and time, well, its not a money maker. But it is good fun to talk with folks and tell stories. Hope I didn't bore to tears, but this is part of my business too. Thanks to the folks who buy my wood. I do appreciate it. Hope you like what you get. Any issues call the boss. Thats me. I will always make it right.

Figured lumber and how I find it.

2011-11-18T14:16:00.000-08:00

A pile of birdseye maple. Its one of those things that when you find some good stuff, you get as much as you can. I have a lot of lumber around my shop and old shop and , well a few other places. I am a lumber junkie. There I said it. I love to find great figured wood. I get log sets and try and keep them seperated. That is not easy.

These are racks of flame birch, curly cherry,curly hard maple and slabs of spalted sycamore. There is some applewood on the floor along with some heartwood curly maple.

Here are some flame birch, curly hard maple, 8/4 plain maple, some slabs, some wide 6/4 white pine and 16/4 clear white pine. More birdseye and somewhere in there is some plain hard maple. You just never have enough. My shop is full also. What can I say. I am a fortunate man. I look at each piece as i unload and stack it and think of what I can make with it. Lordy, there is some wonderful stuff in these piles.

Guess i didn't get to where to find this stuff. That will have to wait for now. if you need some, let me know....

Small chests, figured wood and something different.

2011-11-17T15:24:00.000-08:00

I started some keeping chests today. Charles Neil and I made a set of dvds a few years back about these and candle boxes. They are just flat out pretty. I have sold a number of these over the last few years. If you want to see my acting debut and how good Charles is at making these, go here
https://charlesneilwoodworking.3dcartstores.com/The-Keeping-Chest-Colonial-Candle-Box_p_68.html

You can make these any size. I am making these 10" deep, 20" long and 10" tall for the chest. I have made them as small as 8"' by 16". I have seen some made smaller. I like the proportions going by halves.
Here are the 4 I have cut the dovetails on.

The one on the lower right as you look at the picture is made from bark inclusion hard maple. It is pretty cool stuff. I pulled this from a pile at a mill that was going to the pallet factory. I got 1 board that was wide enough to make a chest.

It is full of holes and bark and swirls and all kinds of cracks. I 'll put up a picture of the back side a little further down. When I cut the tails and pins, I wasn't sure what would happen. There are so many cracks and holes, I thought it might just blow apart when I pounded it together. It didn't.

The other boxes are 1 hard tiger maple , 1 sap flame birch and 1 red flame birch.

This is the red flame birch. It is the heartwood of a yellow birch. Very hard and it is red like cherry. Unlike cherry it does not get darker. This one will get a russet amber dye which is my favorite for red birch. It has some really nice figure.

This is the sap flame birch. It has a little broader curl in it. This is the same stuff as Charles used in his table on his show.
http://www.cn-woodworking.com/ Go there and look up his show. He does an excellent job showing how to build furniture. I have been building for 30 years and I learn stuff all the time. Well worth the low cost and if you can't understand something, he will answer you.

Last but not least is the hard tiger maple. It has a nice tight figure. These are always the ones that stop people dead in their tracks at a show. It should be a very pretty one when its done.

Here is the backside of the first box. It has some reddish brown heartwood in it too. I will get some closeup pictures another time. The stuff is really different.

I will show more as I go. I have the hardware for these, which I buy from Horton Hardware.
Deer hunting opens here this weekend and I am expecting the gunshots to be loud. I love hunters. I have hit too many deer over the years and its great to see kids out with their folks hunting and spending time together. Nothing better then that.

White pine slab is ready to finish

2011-11-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

Got the white pine slab sanded and epoxy in the cracks. Cleaned off the top and have it ready for finish. I use sandpaper from Industrial abrasives and it sure handles this pine nice. They are a nice small American company that really knows customer service and their products.

I am working on some black ash benches. We will see how they turn out. Black ash is soft and easy to work with. It is a very pretty grained wood. Hope to have some shots of those in the next week or so.

Big slabs, trimming and planing and just about killing myself....

2011-11-02T11:31:00.000-07:00

Had 5 big white pine slabs. Over eight feet long and 26" wide. Had to get 4 of them planed up and ready to be picked up. They will go into bar tops. Yep, lots of bars in Wisconsin.

Its nice when 2 boards cover the width of the truck box

Got one on the cart, ready to trim off the edge

These are all 2.5" thick, kiln dried with one natural edge. Nice tight knots. All came from 1 tree. Blew down in a storm. The thing is with these, some people like the bark left on. I have 1 slab left and am peeling the bark off. I love the texture the edge shows with the bark off.
I forgot how heavy these can be, even in white pine. I am 215 lbs, but these were close in weight to me. I was moving slow after I got done yesterday. But it sure is fun to work wood that size and shape. Just some very cool looking stuff. The swirls and knots and figure are just cool. God does create some really cool things.

Slabs and table bases

2011-11-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

I started getting a few of the slabs ready to make some benches and tables. I have 2 real nice curly maple slabs.

They are almost 18" wide at the widest point.

I was thinking a desk top, simple legs, an arch with a small drawer. These are a little over 8 feet long. I will trim them back to someplace around 6 to 7 feet. Not sure if I will dye these or just clear coat.

I am also working on some black ash benches and maybe a hall table. Black ash grows in the swamps and never gets very large. But it is very pretty. It is brown in color and has a very nice tight grain. It works very easy. These slabs came from some old trees, well over 100 years old.

These were cut in winter and dried this past summer. The bark is really hard to get off. The maple and oak pops right off. This stuff is welded on. Tried chisels and now using a drawknife. It takes about 30 minutes to do 1 edge . It is worth it though when you get done.

These will be made into a small sitting bench. I need to get these glued up and then sanded and ready for finish. I will be using some turned legs and an apron to finish this up. The wood will be an oil finish and the base will be black. It makes a nice combination.
As thick as these are, over 2" thick, the black ash is pretty light in weight. I hope to post more as these come along.

The stepback is complete

2011-10-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

Looks pretty, doesn't it? 57" wide and 77" tall. All tiger maple, including the drawer sides and all the secondary wood. I really like how this turned out. Both size wise and color. I really like the light golden brown walnut dye on the tiger maple.

It has the lift up lid on top for added secret space. It is a very nice feature. Just make sure to allow space for expansion. I added about a 1/16" on either side and about 3/32" on the front. Everyone that sees it really loves it. I hope to get it shipped out soon. Have a couple other projects to get started. I also am wanting to start some more slab tables.

Getting the top section up on the bottom and getting pictures is always hard. God bless my wife. Could not do this without her help. She helped me get the top on and take pictures. Then take it back off. She is a trooper. I am blessed in many ways. She is the biggest blessing to me.
Got the secret drawers in place and all set to go. I hope you enjoyed the photos. I have more, but nothing much different then what is here. If you have questions, let me know.

Secret compartments, hidden drawers, mullions and tiger maple

2011-10-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

Making glass doors for cupboards is always a time consuming process. All the cuts, parts and pieces make for a time eating day. Lots of figuring and tweaking to get everything to fit right and look good. There is also the time spent planing and jointing parts and letting them rest to see if they get twist or warp.

I use shapers for most of my doors. I have one set up for cutting the copes and one for cutting the rails and stiles. I always follow the advice of a good friend of mine and nibble away to eliminate any chipping in the tiger maple. Rough the pieces out, run them through the shaper, joint the edge again and re run them. Makes for nice sharp crisp edges and good looking doors. I took lots of pictures to show the steps, but I am not a photographer. A lot of them were blurry and not in good focus. Its also hard to take a shot while pushing a piece into a cutter.

Chip out in the tiger maple. This happens with most figured woods. Take a 1/32" off on the jointer and re run the piece and you get a nice clean cut.

Running the piece through the shaper with a small feeder works great. No fingers get chewed up and the feeder holds everything in place. It also allows a varible
feedrate.

Lots of small pieces. Getting everything to fit right takes lots of trimming and test fitting. You need to take your time and not get excited when things don't fit the third or forth time...My dad would call it piddling work. You piddle around until it is right.

I also have the secret compartment done on the upper section. Learned that also from my friend. It is a slick way to add something extra, plus it is just cool. I will be adding some secret drawers as well. I guess that is enough for today. I hope to get the doors sanded and ready for finish tomorrow. I've had enough "piddling" for today.

Stepback bottom section finished

2011-10-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

Looks like the wood is on fire. Turned out very nice. Nothing finer then an October day, almost 80 degrees and no humidity. Perfect day for finishing. Still have to add the back and a small molding around the bottom frame. Looking at this in the sun just looked like gazing at a fire, The grain just leaps out. Seems almost a shame to cover the top with the upper section. The hardware is yet to be installed on the doors and drawer. Can't wait to see this all together. It will be a stunner. Hope you enjoy. bob

A day for dyeing....

2011-10-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

Today was the day I dyed the lower case of the tiger maple stepback cupboard I am working on. Got all the grain raising and sanding out of the way. Got the coat of oil on and then the 1st coat of sealer. It is looking really nice. This is some incredible tiger maple I am using.

Tomorrow will be sanding and cleaning and starting with the finish coats. The weather has been just wonderful. It was almost 80 today with low humidity. Sounds like this might last for almost another week. Sure makes time in the shop go fast with the doors open and the sun shining.

Thanks for looking in. Hope to have some stories of some of the folks I deal with coming . They are pretty interesting people, at least to me. Hope you all have a great week!

First time jitters

2011-10-03T06:05:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is. Having never been known as a blogger, writer,talker, I am taking the first steps. I am a custom furniture maker. I love what I do and have a great wife who supports what I do. Can't ask for any more then that. I am a blessed man.

I wanted to start this out by some simple explaining about what it is I do. How I build and find the right material. The stories about folks I meet and what I see. Its not a story many might find interesting, but I just thought I could share some.

The title of this blog is kind of what I do in my business. I buy and sell figured wood and build custom furniture. The wood finding is one of the fun thing I get to do. My wife goes along at times while I search out small mills and the interesting folks who run them. I hope to share some stories with you about that process. I know that I find the sawmill folks some of the most kind and honest folks I deal with. It goes the same with loggers. Honest, down to earth kind folks. I will share more of these folks with you as time goes on.

Its a beautiful October morning as I write this. It was a big weekend for Wisconsin sports. Packers Badgers and Brewers all won. Life is good on the farm. Hope you all have a wonderful day and I will write more later. bob