# My husband's new passion - Live Edge



## TKent (Nov 8, 2014)

While I've been dabbling in creative writing, my husband found a new hobby as well. For those of you who don't know, we are building a house in Asheville, and what started as a simple request for a new dining table, has turned into an amazing new hobby for him! In fact, he likes it so much that I convinced him to add a woodworking shop under the garage of the new house!


1. This was the first table he made. We are waiting for the base from India. (Antique Lathe reproduction). 

Kiln dried Black Walnut being sanded:







Turned into this:






2. Small desk he made to drag me out of the office. Now I write in the great room while he watches TV...it is on an antique drafting table base which we had on the screened porch as a plant stand. He made this one out of scraps from the table above and pieced them together. I loved the knot that is dead center!






3. A maple desk top he has just made:






4. And this one is still raw wood. He found the 'legs' on an old rusted piece of abandoned farm equipment in the woods and brought them home, painted them up. This is going to make an awesome coffee table.


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## TKent (Nov 8, 2014)

And here is the reproduction base we are waiting on for the dining table:


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## LeeC (Nov 8, 2014)

Nice work, taking advantage of the natural wood beauty. 


Those big power tools sure save a lot of back-breaking work ;-)


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## Firemajic (Nov 8, 2014)

:distress: I clicked in the little red X--but nothing...I would love to have seen it, I am a huge lover of woood and natural stuff. I am sure it is wonderful...


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## PiP (Nov 8, 2014)

Amazing, TK. I love natural wood furniture.


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## TKent (Nov 8, 2014)

Hey firemajic, weird that you can't see it.  I wonder if it is because the image URLs are from my facebook account??



Firemajic said:


> :distress: I clicked in the little red X--but nothing...I would love to have seen it, I am a huge lover of woood and natural stuff. I am sure it is wonderful...



- - - Updated - - -

He has collected a bunch since he started this. But the big sander he goes to a local saw mill and pays to use it.  



LeeC said:


> Nice work, taking advantage of the natural wood beauty.
> 
> 
> Those big power tools sure save a lot of back-breaking work ;-)


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## J Anfinson (Nov 8, 2014)

Those look really good. I'm the son of a carpenter and can't cut a straight line to save my life layful: Sure do love wood furniture, though.


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## Elvenswordsman (Nov 8, 2014)

Beautiful Dionysian concepts, I'd love to learn more about the manufacturing process!


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## LeeC (Nov 8, 2014)

TKent said:


> He has collected a bunch since he started this. But the big sander he goes to a local saw mill and pays to use it.



Yes, some of wood I harvested from my own woodlot I'd take to a mill to have cut. Then I'd sticker it for a couple years and take it back for planing. I mostly only had hand tools. 


He ever get started bending your ear about the considerations for wood movement in furniture construction, relative to how it's cut (e.g. quarter sawn vs. plain-sawn)? Using those large slabs for table tops, no doubt he uses slip connections with the bases, especially lateraly given the different movement characteristics of metal and wood. 


Nice pieces  I'd like to see pictures of further projects when he gets into figured woods like tiger and birds-eye maple.


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## TKent (Nov 8, 2014)

Hey Lee, this is a new hobby for him, so he's still learning everything.  I'm gonna pass this comment on, so if he 'hasn't' given it any thought, he can look it up  



> He ever get started bending your ear about the considerations for wood movement in furniture construction, relative to how it's cut (e.g. quarter sawn vs. plain-sawn)? Using those large slabs for table tops, no doubt he uses slip connections with the bases, especially lateraly given the different movement characteristics of metal and wood.


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## LeeC (Nov 8, 2014)

TKent said:


> Hey Lee, this is a new hobby for him, so he's still learning everything.  I'm gonna pass this comment on, so if he 'hasn't' given it any thought, he can look it up



Learning is where we all start. What's important is he's happy, your happy ;-)


PS: Something that was helpful to me was Bruce Hoadley's  1980 book "Understanding Wood." When I was looking it up to see if I remembered correctly, I found there's been a later edition.


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## TKent (Nov 8, 2014)

Thanks for the tip!!!  



> PS: Something that was helpful to me was Bruce Hoadley's 1980 book "Understanding Wood." When I was looking it up to see if I remembered correctly, I found there's been a later edition.


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## Mistique (Nov 8, 2014)

They are very beautiful. I can tell you are proud


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## InstituteMan (Nov 8, 2014)

Those are simply gorgeous.


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## Plasticweld (Nov 8, 2014)

This is like porn to a logger/ sawmill guy.... Looks great


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## TKent (Nov 8, 2014)

LMAO   Will definitely share this comment with him!!



Plasticweld said:


> This is like porn to a logger/ sawmill guy.... Looks great


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## Morkonan (Nov 8, 2014)

When growing up, I used to love woodworking. My family's history is intimately tied to woods, from lumber-brokering and furniture manufacture all the way to "prospecting." (An uncle used his stint in the military during WWII to prospect for good sources and contacts all over the world. One day he's in combat, the next he's talking it up with the native suppliers. 

I've often thought of taking it back up, but I just don't have any convenient place to put all the tools I'd want to have. The inner-woodworker in me is slobbering over that planer! And that timber? WOW! Such nice pieces! I'd really like to see what those look like in a finished state.

My one fault as a woodworker is "perfection." I never like to stop at "perfect enough." I'd make a crappy engineer.


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## tinacrabapple (Nov 8, 2014)

I always admire wood furniture as well.  I'd have it all over my house, but unfortunately, I can't afford it.


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## TKent (Nov 8, 2014)

Hey Tina,

Oddly, it was my desire for an expensive table that led to this little exercise. After the wood, supplies, and finding the reproduction base through the alibaba site, I got my table for a third of the price of the one I admired in a shop. My husband can move mountains to save a buck!!



tinacrabapple said:


> I always admire wood furniture as well.  I'd have it all over my house, but unfortunately, I can't afford it.


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## TKent (Jan 30, 2015)

Okay, so my husband finished a new table top which I immediately confiscated for my dining room. (I'm eating up all the profits on his new hobby/business.) This one has Black Walnut with a piece of lighter Poplar down the middle but the best thing of all is, he took some rocks and epoxied them into gaps in the wood. It cranks up to bar height. Have I said today that I love my husband??


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## joshybo (Jan 30, 2015)

Awesome work!  Beginner or otherwise, your husband appears to be very talented!


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## TJ1985 (Jan 30, 2015)

As a viewer, that is excellent. I love those clean lines and tight construction. The integration of the natural edge is simply amazing. 

As a woodworker, I wish certain people would buy their husband a Rubik's cube, 'cause he's making me look inept! The last time I felt like logging some time in the shop, I made nothing. Actually I made a mess, but it wasn't very useful. 

All joking aside, that's nice. Did he make the base? It looks like a 1920's industrialist design, so I'm thinking it's heavy as all get out. I'm not sure you'd find one in the wild. Heavy stuff doesn't survive well during metal drives for war.


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## TKent (Jan 30, 2015)

Hey TJ,

It is a reproduction of a vintage industrial base. He found a supplier in India, and ordered ten (the others are less involved than this one) and had them literally shipped here on a boat. They are HEAVY. He took it apart and brought each piece upstairs separately then put it back together. But it was half the cost of real vintage lathe bases that we were able to find here. 

He is enjoying the work and I'm getting furniture I could never afford otherwise, so it's a win-win!


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## Gumby (Jan 30, 2015)

Wow! Those are all beautiful, but that table with the rocks is just awesome!


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## popsprocket (Jan 30, 2015)

Very cool, love the base especially. It's more my style than the tabletop but that's a fine bit of woodworking in any case.


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## Deafmute (Feb 2, 2015)

how much to commission a piece, my wife would love that.


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## TKent (Feb 2, 2015)

Hey DM, I will PM you with his contact info.


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## Deafmute (Feb 2, 2015)

awesome.


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