As some of you are aware, my "day job" is running a farm based sawmill and kiln drying operation in NC. We specialize in milling and slabbing oversized (up to 72" wide) and overlength (up to 58' long) logs, quartersawing and kiln drying.
We work with a number of individuals, companies and universities that are interested in sustainable forestry and "treecycling" trees that have to be removed due to disease or construction needs. I really enjoy these types of projects, as it is enjoyable and stimulating to work with a talented design team to create ways to preserve and showcase the beauty of the wood for generations.
A couple of years ago we were invited to partner with Duke University on a new construction project on campus - the student Health and Wellness Center. Our role was to survey the construction site, advise of potential uses for the logs from the site, and to provide the related services. At the site we found it had a nice trove of older growth white oak trees and a few red oaks.
We advised the architectural team that we felt that some of the logs would be best used to make white oak veneer to be used in the building, others could be quarter and flat sawn for lumber for the cabinets, and in answer to a query from an architect agreed that some logs would be suitable as log benches indoors.
They very kindly incorporated our suggestions into the plans, and a little over a year ago we picked up several loads of logs for processing into veneer, lumber and log benches. The veneer logs were selected by me and delivered to a specialty veneer splicing company for processing per our specs, and we were actively involved in that entire process.
Mid last year the project team met at our shop to review the veneer samples, and they were supportive to utilizing a good amount of quartersawn, high fleck veneer in the panels, in addition to the more traditional rift sawn. We hand selected all of the flitches from the entire batch and shipped the veneer to a panel maker in Kentucky. The remaining lumber produced from the trees that grew onsite will be used for other projects on campus. I think that the panel maker did an extraordinary job.
This past Sunday we delivered the benches. Their original design called for square cuts on all faces, but the architects agreed to our suggestion to leave the front and back sides live edge.
Normally we don't get involved with finish work (prefer to refer that portion of the job to some of our customers), but in this instance the logistics of handling massive, heavy, oversized benches was beyond the capabilities of the folks that we would normally use - so we did them in-house.
The welding portion of the project was fairly simple and was comprised of cutting some 3" channel bases and welding them up to be installed under the log benches. The inside of the channel was filled with oak planks that were glued and screwed together and the benches are actually supported by the wood (the channel is primarily for decoration).
The benches were rough milled last year, air dried for several months, placed into our Nyle L200 kiln for several days in order to sterilize them (it is impossible to fully kiln dry white oak that is 15" thick, and in this instance the honeycomb that was bound to occur would not negatively impact the final product), and then planed with our Peterson planer blade, sanded and finished with multiple coats of Heritage Natural Finishes Concentrated Finishing Oil (the old Land Ark formula). There was a lot of hand work in chamfering the edges of the checks so as to prevent splinters from developing over time.
We made a 6 footer, 7 footer and a 20 footer. The 20 footer weighs around 3000 lbs. I'm pleased with how they came out.
Here are some photo's of the veneered panels. All of this came from logs harvested from the site. The architects were very receptive to our suggestion to incorporate quartersawn, higher fleck veneer with some of the more traditional rift pattern. They also came up with an idea to utilize some of the character wood veneer as accent panels in the wall. It really came out well.
All in all it was an interesting and fun project, and I feel blessed to have been able to participate in it.
Scott
We work with a number of individuals, companies and universities that are interested in sustainable forestry and "treecycling" trees that have to be removed due to disease or construction needs. I really enjoy these types of projects, as it is enjoyable and stimulating to work with a talented design team to create ways to preserve and showcase the beauty of the wood for generations.
A couple of years ago we were invited to partner with Duke University on a new construction project on campus - the student Health and Wellness Center. Our role was to survey the construction site, advise of potential uses for the logs from the site, and to provide the related services. At the site we found it had a nice trove of older growth white oak trees and a few red oaks.
We advised the architectural team that we felt that some of the logs would be best used to make white oak veneer to be used in the building, others could be quarter and flat sawn for lumber for the cabinets, and in answer to a query from an architect agreed that some logs would be suitable as log benches indoors.
They very kindly incorporated our suggestions into the plans, and a little over a year ago we picked up several loads of logs for processing into veneer, lumber and log benches. The veneer logs were selected by me and delivered to a specialty veneer splicing company for processing per our specs, and we were actively involved in that entire process.
Mid last year the project team met at our shop to review the veneer samples, and they were supportive to utilizing a good amount of quartersawn, high fleck veneer in the panels, in addition to the more traditional rift sawn. We hand selected all of the flitches from the entire batch and shipped the veneer to a panel maker in Kentucky. The remaining lumber produced from the trees that grew onsite will be used for other projects on campus. I think that the panel maker did an extraordinary job.
This past Sunday we delivered the benches. Their original design called for square cuts on all faces, but the architects agreed to our suggestion to leave the front and back sides live edge.
Normally we don't get involved with finish work (prefer to refer that portion of the job to some of our customers), but in this instance the logistics of handling massive, heavy, oversized benches was beyond the capabilities of the folks that we would normally use - so we did them in-house.
The welding portion of the project was fairly simple and was comprised of cutting some 3" channel bases and welding them up to be installed under the log benches. The inside of the channel was filled with oak planks that were glued and screwed together and the benches are actually supported by the wood (the channel is primarily for decoration).
The benches were rough milled last year, air dried for several months, placed into our Nyle L200 kiln for several days in order to sterilize them (it is impossible to fully kiln dry white oak that is 15" thick, and in this instance the honeycomb that was bound to occur would not negatively impact the final product), and then planed with our Peterson planer blade, sanded and finished with multiple coats of Heritage Natural Finishes Concentrated Finishing Oil (the old Land Ark formula). There was a lot of hand work in chamfering the edges of the checks so as to prevent splinters from developing over time.
We made a 6 footer, 7 footer and a 20 footer. The 20 footer weighs around 3000 lbs. I'm pleased with how they came out.
Here are some photo's of the veneered panels. All of this came from logs harvested from the site. The architects were very receptive to our suggestion to incorporate quartersawn, higher fleck veneer with some of the more traditional rift pattern. They also came up with an idea to utilize some of the character wood veneer as accent panels in the wall. It really came out well.
All in all it was an interesting and fun project, and I feel blessed to have been able to participate in it.
Scott
