Forest to Table Woodworking

The highly anticipated feature for 2022/23 winter season has finally arrived! This is my first foray into a traditional table style and the result is the largest and most elegant piece I have ever made. Nearly 6 feet in diameter and pushing 160 pounds, this walnut and butternut beast will last several lifetimes. The tabletop, apron, cross-supports and feet are made from walnut harvested near Salford and the pedestal is made from butternut harvested down the road. Dyed with General Finishes gel stain, finished with Rubio Monocoat and Black Forest ceramics coating. On to the next one…

The much anticipated JR series: first entry. From its humble beginnings as a majestic shade tree an enormous silver maple has passed on to the highest level of tree afterlife - furniture. Starting from the bottom (and largest) log is entry one of many, deemed “The Well”. It is a cross section measuring 53” in diameter that displays the colour, figure and voids earned in it’s 90+ years of life.

Presenting a truly unique cake board - quarter sawn sycamore heartwood. Based on an asymmetrical circle doodle, I left a small portion of the live edge in tact. Finished with linseed oil and buffed to a shine with local beeswax.

Cake made by .cakes

It’s been ages since I’ve posted anything, mostly because my last project has been so large, but now and then it’s good to break away and work on something special. I present my wedding gift for Becky and Travis: a beautiful curly hawthorn crotch slab carved into a tray. It’s heavy, striking and completely unique. Finished with lacquer over tung oil and rubbed out to a satin sheen with local beeswax. *clink* 🥂

Forest to Table Woodworking is now on WhatsApp.

New brand! :)

Feels like ages since my last post! I present Lizzie’s record player stand. My first major foray into hand-cut joinery. Beautiful quilted black cherry given a traditional yellow and amber hue accents well against the black dye in the ash legs. A through-mortise in the top level exposes the end grain of the ash. Floating tenons bring the rest of the piece together. A 12-degree angle on the legs and 45-degree chamfer on the underside of the tops reflect the Japanese influence.

Continuing my foray into blending dyes, I present the curly maple console table. From it’s humble beginnings as a roadside salvage this steel frame provides the perfect backdrop. As with many woodworkers I am prone to impulse-buying small lots of highly-figured and unique wood and they tend to hang around for just the right project. Here I have two different species of maple with the same curly figure dyed using colourFx and finished with 5 coats of arm-r-seal. I think I’ll keep this one…

The much anticipated willow coffee table is done! Stabilized with a curly hard maple butterfly key and encased in epoxy this endgrain marvel, complete with termite holes, is ready for whatever life can throw at it. The base is made of white ash dyed black and finished in black Rubio monocoat. The inaugural dive into hand-cut joinery, the legs are held together with through tenons and a central half-lap joint. Delivered early in case it was mistaken as the gift table (as opposed to a gifted table). Happy pre-wedding Celia and Deon!

Dogs need nice things too... like a luxurious bowl stand made from curly ambrosia maple and white birch.

It’s nice to shift scales and work on smaller pieces now and then. An ottoman tray was the perfect thing. Dyed sugar maple and sleek handles made for a great centrepiece. It’s solid, functional and beautiful!

Contrast. These days it is so often overlooked. White, grey, and black dominate the landscape but a focal point like a coffee table needs stopping power and contrast is the key. Grain, colour, and dimension can be manipulated to compliment or contrast and hit any part of the spectrum in between. This coffee table is exactly what contrast can bring to a living space. Intense figure hidden away in the hickory’s prominent grain is given depth through colour manipulation and black epoxy. Reclaimed chestnut barn timbers, resawn into every component of the table base, offer a complimentary open grain while forming the perfect backdrop for both a white dye and a white grain filler. A distant glance immediately draws your eye to the tabletop. Closer inspection reveals the old nail heads, insect damage, and magnificent texture behind the winter white exterior of the chestnut timbers. Separate, they are beautiful expressions of what their species has to offer. Together, they are a work of art.

Coming soon to Red Dragon Dairy, my largest piece to date! An enormous live edge counter top and a few other interesting additions to the store front. Stay tuned!

With great anticipation the Byers family table has arrived! The silver maple bookmatched table top and matching bench pair beautifully with the ebonized red oak legs. Clear epoxy gives life to the table-length voids and the high-grit Osmo finish brings a new level of lustre. Enjoy :)

Gift-season is upon us and the first of many sets is complete. This set is an interesting one. Three pieces - three species all rapidly declining from the landscape. Disease and land use change are two driving factors for species decline. In this case you have an American elm cutting board (top) and live edge coaster made from butternut (right) and hawthorn (left). Elm and butternut have been in decline from their respective fungal diseases for decades and hawthorn is constantly displaced due to changing farm practices and loss of shrubland. All three were cut dead-standing and exhibit beautiful grain patterns. The hawthorn was dyed to add contrast and finished with a thinned poly. The butternut and elm were soaked in mineral oil and buffed with a combination of danish oil and orange oil.

Barn board this, barn board that... with down-time comes home improvement projects and a barn board accent wall almost seems obligatory these days. For good reason!! Just look at it - a mix of degraded floor boards, joists, and dry-rotted timber combines to make something multi-dimensional and pleasing to take in.

Knowing me there has to be a little twist and in this case it’s not just an accent wall, but an accent ceiling. Whether I am actually at the forefront of this particular trend I’ll never know but stay tuned for pictures.

As some of you know I have mixed feelings about epoxy in woodworking. Instagram and Pinterest tend to push trends toward epoxy products with some wood to accent. My preference has always been the opposite - wood pieces with some epoxy for stabilization and minor colour accents. Then this coaster request came up and I took a reluctant leap - to a surprising and pleasant conclusion! Black, white, metal filings and mica powders of any colour you can imagine all lend themselves to small pieces like these and offer the punch and wow-factor of heavily figured wood on a coloured background.

I present the “Inverted” series. Fragments of spalted apple, sugar maple and silver maple set into a sea of black. Keep an eye out for them at The Shop in Princeton!

Lizzie’s first Muskoka chair - knotty pine with eastern red cedar arm rests. Did I mention it folds flat? Kudos to Veritas for a quality design. On to the “his and hers” set with side table. I wonder what species I should use next...

My new love/hate relationship - boxelder (Manitoba maple). For years I would take every opportunity to remove boxelder from swamps and wetlands in my care not knowing the hidden treasure within. Red and maroon streaks combined with ambrosia stain and slight spalting, I present to you the boxelder [double] waterfall. Finished with Osmo Polyx, this bench is up for a lifetime of hard work.

On this rainy Sunday it’s only fitting to give all you lovely people something celebrating brighter days. The Robillard family outdoor bar.

It feels like ages ago I marked a very interesting cherry tree for harvest. It was old and in decline but it exhibited some qualities I knew would make a standout piece so I had it brought to the mill and sawn up. It’s hard to describe a slab like this as the colours will slowly intensify as the days go on. That dynamic character is what draws me to it. Each day I think about how much has changed and I am excited to go back in a few weeks for the final polish and see just how much the reds and oranges have saturated.

This 8-foot black cherry slab has been flooded with epoxy and given 3 coats of Epifanes marine spar varnish.

As businesses begin to open up and we all start perusing isles (after waiting in line for 15 minutes, seeing a sign on the door that we need a mask, going back to the car to get the mask our partner put in our glove box after telling us we would need it, getting back in line and finally getting into the air conditioned store) it’s time I restocked the artisan market with new items. Fresh from a mineral oil bath, here are the first few coaster sets.

As my most loyal and passionate followers already know, I love me some end grain. Here we have beautiful ambrosia silver maple sandwiched between figured black walnut. Other variations include white oak, black cherry and sugar maple with walnut ever-present to add some much needed contrast.

Once in a while you come across something you just have to have. In this case it was a matched set of spalted apple slabs. These were, by far, the largest diameter pieces of apple I have ever come across - the tree was found dead-standing in a cattle pasture. The large cracks and voids were filled with clear epoxy and the hundreds of small insect holes were left open. Finished with Osmo extra-thin hardwax oil.

Caught with too many plants and too few shelves? Well a console table is for you! This waterfall-style white oak board had just the right combination of character and neutrality. The voids have been left open (but still oiled) for a more rustic feel. For subtlety the support leg is spruce finished with a white stain. Finally a reason to lock my front door at night.

The final addition to the Nedelko family dining table - a matching bench! With a gentle curve, sweet cherry accents and figure that you can’t look away from, this curly walnut bench makes for an individualistic piece that still looks like a perfect match :)

Here is a nifty little remake of some rotting benches we found when we moved in. A nice laminated red cedar bench on the refreshed base makes for one heck of an eye-catching piece of garden furniture. I can’t get enough of the colour or smell of the wood.

It will turn a deeper red in the sun but a quick sanding before company comes over will make those purples pop back to life and bring out that delightful smell. Maybe a couple car fresheners from my offcuts are in order...

It’s Wood-grain Wednesday! Here’s a sneak peak at my new bench and the early stages of a silver maple dining table. Stay isolated! ;)

Sometimes I get so caught up making things for other people I forget I want things too! It’s about time I had a nice little end-grain cutting board of my own and Grace has been eyeing this spalted maple platter for a while... check ✔️and check ✔️.

P.S. Might make a few more cutting boards since I’ll be working from home for a while. Let me know if you want one.

I’m not one to hang a lot of art in the house - I’m more of a photograph guy. I don’t mind a bit of symbolism but I prefer a medium that one can take more literally. So, here you have it. Art taken in the form of heavy spalting in a dead apple tree.

To give a bit for perspective, spalting occurs when fungi come into contact with one another and wage chemical warfare on a cellular level. Blacks, greys and blues represent the lines of attack and occupied territory while reds and browns shed light on the state of the wood itself - like a city reduced to rubble, lignin (structure in the wood) is persistently broken down to a cellulose powder.

Where one may simply look upon these pieces and see the intricate beauty of natural decay others may see the symbolism of something greater at work.

There might just be one or two pieces left for an interested party ;)

Next on the docket - a willow cross-section coffee table (aka The Celia). End grain can be finicky to plane (the early stages of an ant colony make it even more so), so I decided to employ the help of Atlee the Amish-man and his gigantic helical-head planer. The results were far better than expected and this willow slab promises to be a stellar showpiece. Stay tuned for inlay choices... Celia Mackenzie

The Nedelko family dining table is done! This unique book-match with twin pedestals has endless character - from the copper-tinted epoxy to the forgotten walnut shell lodged in the crotch. Every section was locally felled and custom sawn near the little hamlet of Foldens, ON. The spalted hawthorn charcuterie board is the icing on the cake. Erica Pohjola-Nedelko enjoy :)