I have been working on a door project for a friend and client in Asheville for the last few months. This spring has been unusually busy for me (which is great - but tough) so this project has dragged out longer than I wanted. The good news is that I am finally in the 'short rows' and set to deliver them soon. There are nine total doors: a front door, two French doors, two enormous pairs of carriage doors, and a pair of shop doors. I designed them with feedback from the Jackson Family for a new craftsman style home they are building as we speak. Despite my challenges and time struggles, this project has been delightful from the outset, and I couldn't be happier about the new friends I have made. I wish this family would publish a book on 'How to Hire and Communicate with Artists & Custom Builders' because I simply cannot say enough good things about them. Thank you Tim.
So now that I am finally applying finish to these doors and getting ready for the delivery I thought I would share the process with NCWW. These doors are called stave core, which is essentially a process of milling out a bunch of solid lumber, ripping it down, gluing it back together, veneering it, milling it back down again, and then assembling parts. The reason for building doors this way is to help the components resist temperature and humidity extremes. For example, front entry doors in the mountains might see 5% humidity and 20 degrees outside and 40% relative humidity and 75 degrees inside. Wood does not like that funny business at all - so it wants to move. A stave core door is better equipped to resist those opposing forces because most of the torsional forces have been released from the material. Building these types of doors is labor intensive - but barring disaster, these doors will outlive everyone alive today and that's my goal.
The front and French doors are premium FAS quartersawn white oak including the stave cores. The carriage and shop doors are Mahogany exterior and Spanish Cedar (AKA Cedro Dulce) stave cores and inside faces. All white oak is fumed with ammonium hydroxide and then all of the doors are finished with 3 coats of hand applied Sikkens Cetol Door & Window Dark Brown Oak. The natural red hues in the Mahogany and Spanish Cedar create a beautiful reddish brown color while the oak finishes out to a rich warm brown. I'll post photos of the finished doors later this week. Here are some process shots.
thanks for reading, I'll post some more photos later.
So now that I am finally applying finish to these doors and getting ready for the delivery I thought I would share the process with NCWW. These doors are called stave core, which is essentially a process of milling out a bunch of solid lumber, ripping it down, gluing it back together, veneering it, milling it back down again, and then assembling parts. The reason for building doors this way is to help the components resist temperature and humidity extremes. For example, front entry doors in the mountains might see 5% humidity and 20 degrees outside and 40% relative humidity and 75 degrees inside. Wood does not like that funny business at all - so it wants to move. A stave core door is better equipped to resist those opposing forces because most of the torsional forces have been released from the material. Building these types of doors is labor intensive - but barring disaster, these doors will outlive everyone alive today and that's my goal.
The front and French doors are premium FAS quartersawn white oak including the stave cores. The carriage and shop doors are Mahogany exterior and Spanish Cedar (AKA Cedro Dulce) stave cores and inside faces. All white oak is fumed with ammonium hydroxide and then all of the doors are finished with 3 coats of hand applied Sikkens Cetol Door & Window Dark Brown Oak. The natural red hues in the Mahogany and Spanish Cedar create a beautiful reddish brown color while the oak finishes out to a rich warm brown. I'll post photos of the finished doors later this week. Here are some process shots.
thanks for reading, I'll post some more photos later.
