Mantle is hung

 Taylors mantle turned out fantastic, he sent some pictures after the guy finished installing it

Really Cool Bar

 Part of Taylor's big project includes an outdoor bar on his new deck. There are some 5x5 posts in place to secure the roof, and we could mount the bar around those posts. This one was my idea when we were looking through the house trying to decide how best to use these slabs, and this thing turned out better than I could have ever imagined.

Starting with some sticks

The raw slab as it came off of the sawmill

Cut some radius edges and notched out to fit around the posts

Cleaned up the live edge front

Starting to cut out the supports

Cleaned up and installed

Support system

View from the backyard

This really fits in with the rest of the porch and turned out nicer than I expected. I sat on it, it's super sturdy. This bar is about 7' long & 16" wide. After cutting out the basic shapes, I had to plane and sand everything smooth & flat, all the way through 300 grit paper. Taylor ended up sealing the bar with the same stuff he used to seal the deck so it would all match. This plank turned out really clean and I'm super happy they picked me to build this piece for them, and the rest of the projects.

New Mantle

 I'm in the middle of this large project for a friend when he brought over a mantle that's been in a kiln for a few months. There were some pretty serious checks in there, it's very thick, and from the same tree as the rest of the furniture I'm building for him. This mantle turned out incredible, I'm really happy with it and can't wait to see it on the wall.

These are bench tops for the kitchen table I'm building for him. Cool radius corners

Shaped, planed, and sanded

Really cool defect where this branch pulled out

Tons of large checks/cracks in the top and some spalting on the back

Big checks in the bottom as well

checks got filled with epoxy, so did that cool burl

No idea why the Old Masters finish left all of these black spots, but I had to sand all of that off to get it clean.

Finished product

This mantle turned out super cool. It started rough cut, so I had to cut it to size first, then plane and sand everything to a finished look. I used some TotalBoat epoxy to fill in all of the checks & cracks that came out of the kiln, also exposed a really cool burl on top and some spalting on one side. 

Taylor loved it. I'll post a picture of the finished product once it's installed.

Benches

 My buddy Taylor is renovating his house. They had to take down an old oak tree that they really loved, so he had a portable sawmill come over and cut a bunch of slabs out of the trunk, then he brought them over to my house to air dry for a while. After going to his house and checking out the addition, I'm going to build him an outdoor bar, some outdoor bench seating, a coffee table, some floating shelves, and a dining room table & benches. 

Live edge stuff is pretty straightforward, you just have to work the wood until it's done. No complex joinery or anything. Just plane out the sawmill marks, get the top flat, and clean everything else down good. Put a good finish on it and some legs and you're done. 

The Full Stack

That's a lot of lumber.  Going to make for some mighty fine furniture. 

Rough cut

Cleaned off, I dumped some water to bring out the grain

From the top  all sanded & ready for finish

Now with finish - Old Master's Ascend Exterior

This bench is ready, his wife hasn't decided on what kind of legs to put on these benches. Once I get some legs this one is ready to deliver. The grain really pops, the live edge is cool, it sits great... just need some legs.

The big thick slabs at the top of the stack make 2 of these benches and the thicker one for a coffee table. Taylor loves it.