custom design

Wooden Crest

by Prairie Bench0

prairie bench wooden crest 2

In the age old tradition of carving family crests on thick wooden shields, we did our own. It’s a representation of a lion on a field of leaves.

Our carver created a fine line etching and finished the work with a custom frame holder. The crest is made out of a few select pieces of fine grain spruce and the holder is fir. Spruce is a softer wood but quite strong and pleasant to carve and whittle. A light stain of mixed antiquing oils was used to penetrate the etching and darken the lines. The piece is soaked in linseed oil and cured to a hard finish. (If you are working with oils, remember to place the rags in a sealed metal container or they might spontaneously ignite. Or hang them outside to dry.)

A retired furniture manufacturer from the UK saw this piece and pronounced it definitely guild quality. We don’t know about all that, but humbled considering we are just whittling out back.

Approximate size: 31″ x 21″ x 1.5″ thick with a 5% curve.

Settle Bench Rustic Finish

by Prairie Bench2

We designed our Settle Bench last year for a holiday promotion. It’s sat in storage until now when we had time to take it out and refinish the wood with more time. The result is a brown denim style that accents the grain. The entire bench is held together by hand carved wooden pegs. A secondary spruce frame is designed within to provide structural support for such massive planks.

A Settle Bench is a traditional design and the name is given to upright hall or entryway bench where guests can ‘settle’ when they enter a home.

The bench was created from a log salvaged by a local tug operator. It’s a Sitka Spruce and we lost count at 200 years old. The unique hole in the Settle Bench’s right wing back is from the boom chain, used to tie the large outer logs and contain the log boom. This was a large spruce specimen (66′ length) and we wanted to preserve the milled planks with their original history. The Settle Bench is approximately 50″ long, 42″ tall and 24″ deep. The front piece folds down for shoe storage.

The tug boat image was taken by Norbert Kaysser who salvaged the Settle Bench log.

Twin Birch and Maple Bench Set

by Prairie Bench0

A client saw our first birch and maple bench and asked for two in a set. Each uses a free fallen salvaged birch, which was milled into planks. Both are 17.5″ inches tall, slightly less than normal seat height. They are very sturdy with solid maple legs pruned last year from a tree that’s actively producing. They were aged outside and off the ground to give them a weathered patina. The entire surface is covered in butcher block oil, one of the nicest for indoor use that takes very little maintenance. We couldn’t bring ourselves to finish these in varnish, and shellac would have affected some natural tones.

All the surfaces are very smooth and touchable, and comfortable enough for two people to share seat. We think a matching bistro table might be coming soon.

Approximately 36″x14″x17.5″tall. Birch and maple, finished in butcher block oil. Pictured: 87-BL-05-12; 88-BL-05-12