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Rustic Furniture

Started by jon12345, December 19, 2005, 08:08:56 PM

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jon12345

I just decided to give this a try, I'm building a small chair for my son using yellow birch for the legs and I think a white pine slab for the bottom.  How many of you  build furniture like this for a living or a hobby?  What do you finish yours with?

So far I just have the legs 'done' I guess you could say, I peeled all the bark and sanded it smooth, but now I'm stuck on how I should connect them...would it be easier to square them and square holes, or cut the holes to fit the current shape?

A.A.S. in Forest Technology.....Ironworker

Tom

Quotehow I should connect them

Here's what I do.

I drill a hole in the seat.  About 1".
Not all the way through.

I whittle the leg to fit the hole.

I split the whittled part (tennon) and put a wedge in it.
A saw kerf works too.

I put a bit of glue in the hole.

I drive the leg home.

If the wedge has been properly sized, it will hit the
bottom of the hole and be driven into the split or saw kerf
and spread the tennon tight in the hole (mortise).

I finish the piece with polyurethane, thinly applied.
Sometimes I just wax it with Johnson's paste wax.

isawlogs

 Tom
  Great minds work alike  ;D ;D ;) Thats the way I do um too.  :)
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Tom

You must've learned how to do that when you lived in Yazoo city, Mississippi.  :D

jon12345

Thanks, that seems a lot easier than what I was goin to try  :)


Anybody have a picture of dry yellow birch? 

This stuff I got is green, from a tree that blew down in the yard and just got cut up and throw down cellar.  If this piece is acceptable to have on public display, I'm gonna make some more out of the remainder of the tree that is still standing.
A.A.S. in Forest Technology.....Ironworker

Tom

Let the legs dry.  If the seat is a little green, that is OK.  The seat will shrink up around the leg.

jon12345

The seat I think I'm going to use was cut and has been air drying since ohh I'd say June 2003...think its dry yet ???

approximately 12/4, white pine, stained gray, with a crack down the middle  :D

The legs have already dried some, there is end checking and some splitting. Would puttin them on the register dry em out too fast?
A.A.S. in Forest Technology.....Ironworker

Tom

might be worth a try.  What are they going to do, crack?  :D :D

isawlogs



 Curly yellow birch , a little something I made for my daughter .
Might not be what you where looking for but it is yellow birch  :)
  Second time , to try and post this .  ;) :)
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

jon12345

 :o


But wouldn't that ruin it  :D

The remainder of the slab I think will become a table or maybe a coffin to bury my failed attempt at a chair.  :-[

A.A.S. in Forest Technology.....Ironworker

Tom

You aren't going to fail.

The pat answer to criticism is:

"I meant to do it that way".

IMERC

LeValley has tenon cutters that work very well and then some. Give them a look see. You can make simplest to the most complicated joints for most any application. They are stronger than strong and make for some very clean artistic projects.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=42299&cat=1,180,42288,45539
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish.... Here fishy fishy....

solodan

Who cares if they have cracks, it's rustic furniture and the checks add natural character. I have often put legs and other small pieces in the oven at 160 degrees over night. the pieces check sometimes. Another way to attach the leg would be to hole saw the top end of the leg and then cut the collar off. Then drill a hole the same size in the bottom of the seat. Now you can split and wedge the tenon as Tom explained, as this will be a very tight fit. I also use a Log Man Tenon maker for rustic pieces. This is a good tool if you want that tapered tenon that you see in log furniture. I  almost always finish with oil based poly, and the last coat gets sanded with 1500  and 1/2 & 1/2 mineral spirits to mineral oil mix, but for kids furniture and toys, the only finish I use is mineral oil, followed by 1500 grit sand paper. You will have to reapply the oil about every 6 months.

jon12345

1500 grit  WOW that must be smoooth.  The place i used to work sanded cherry and maple to 180 and that was pretty smooth.

As for tools I want to stick with the simplest possible for now and for what I have available as the funds are kind of limited at present.

For those of you that do this for a living, do you give someone a price and then build it, build pieces and try to sell them, or build something to the price they have offered and then take the loss if you put too much time or materials into it?

What types of materials are commonly used to make pieces that have a lot of character? The stuff I have that is really accessable to me is ash, apple and some cherry. I don't really like ash because it seems dull to me but maybe in a piece it would look nice.  I liked the way the birch looked after i started to peel it and see some black streaks in the grain.  What might be good for preserving wood with the bark still on?


This forum truly is a wealth of information and I intend to get to the bottom of things  ;D
A.A.S. in Forest Technology.....Ironworker

IMERC

Quote from: jon12345 on December 19, 2005, 09:44:53 PM
1500 grit  WOW that must be smoooth. 

For those of you that do this for a living, do you give someone a price and then build it, build pieces and try to sell them, or build something to the price they have offered and then take the loss if you put too much time or materials into it?

What types of materials are commonly used to make pieces that have a lot of character?  I liked the way the birch looked after i started to peel it and see some black streaks in the grain. 
What might be good for preserving wood with the bark still on?

1500 produces so much hyper fine dust that it plugs the pores of the wood and inhibits you from sanding the material well or the finish taking to the stock material. Later the impacted pore gives up the pocket of dust and then you have a potmarked finish. 400 grit max between coats. Experiment on scrap first.

Price the piece at what you feel it is worth. Work too cheap and you will be busier than you could believe. You won't make a living either only losses. Same applies for being too expensive. Offers and budjects not accepted here.

Aspen has gotta be #1. If you liked the Birch you'll love the Aspen. Hickory is good for character too. Redwood and Cedar makes for interesting accents. Figured Pine and Cypress have got to mentioned too. Play with leaving the worm traces in the finish.

With the bark on. Nothing.
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish.... Here fishy fishy....

Coon

Be careful when drying things like that in the oven.  Drying burls in the oven can be very dangerous.  Just ask my wife.. :o :o  I put a couple of spruce burls and a couple of white birch burls in the oven and turned them on at about 175 degrees because I needed them dried for that following evening for a friend who was going to make some X-mas gifts (paintings) for family members.  About an hour and a half went by and just after the wife walked by one of the burls blew up and blew the oven door right off of the hinges.  The burl from what I could tell had a pitch pocket that was about an inch around and about three quarters of an inch thick at about half the depth of the burl (could not see it at all) and must have slowly heated up until it blew.  The glass cracked in a couple of places and the door twisted. Needless to say the wife got a new stove for Christmas that year and it totally exceeded the Christmas budget and we had to get one of those interest free Christmas loans........ ;D ;D   I can now laugh about the whole episode now but it wasn't funny at the time.  We were holding the family Christmas that year. :D :D
Norwood Lumbermate 2000 w/Kohler,
Husqvarna, Stihl and, Jonsereds Saws

Ironwood

Coon, Good story!!!

Jon12345,

  Buy a tenon cutter from Lee Valley ( 1" would be good for birch, as it's stregnth is not so good). It will pay for itself on the first use. I used them for years at a class I used to teach at Great Camp Sagamore. The recommended text was Dan Mack's "Building Rustic Furniture", with those two you can't go wrong. 
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

Skytramp

I use clear automotive laquer, cut about half thinner, dries super fast, hard as nails and doesn't change the color, and you can apply as many coats as needed to cover bark or whatever.
SkyTramp;
Growing old is inevetable, Growing up is optional

solodan

Quote from: IMERC on December 19, 2005, 10:27:26 PM
1500 produces so much hyper fine dust that it plugs the pores of the wood and inhibits you from sanding the material well or the finish taking to the stock material. Later the impacted pore gives up the pocket of dust and then you have a potmarked finish.

1500 is what I use to rub out the final finish, not between coats. I use 50/50 oil/mineral spirits, which is less agressive than water and a few drops of dish soap, which is also used by profesional finishers. some finishers bring this all the way up to a 4000 grit Abralon pad. this is the process I use on table tops and slabs. the log  stuff with bark on or skip peeled I do not go into that fine of a finish. I started using this process after reading an article in the aug, 2003 issue of Fine Woodworking. I agree with skytramp, clear automotive laquer is great stuff, still it is meant to be polished out. I like using the oil based urethane, because the color does change, as it richens with age.

IMERC

Quote from: solodan on December 20, 2005, 12:25:25 AM
1500 is what I use to rub out the final finish,

So much for rustic. Sounds too much for rustic furniture. I do agree with the Urethane.
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish.... Here fishy fishy....

solodan

Yeah, I understand what you mean,
But at the same time when somebody pays several thousand dollars for a bar top, they want to be able to set their drink on it. 8) I have been thinking of marketing some price point pieces for the thrifty buyer. I came up with this one while I was splitting wood.  ;D

The Very Rustic Chair.
suggested retail $59

IMERC


Excellent plan with the chair.
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish.... Here fishy fishy....

jon12345

There are a lot of those broken chairs down in the cellar, been burnin em to keep warm    :D
A.A.S. in Forest Technology.....Ironworker

IMERC

go after the Yuppie market. $279.95. gotta have a catchy name though.
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish.... Here fishy fishy....

jon12345

today special only: set of 4 non matching, monogrammed stump chairs  own a piece of nature that has been mercilessly slain with a chainsaw and drug from its home with a large piece of equipment  yours for only $1499.95  (a bear once scratched his bum on this tree!)         

Any takers?     :D :D :D   
A.A.S. in Forest Technology.....Ironworker

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