August-September 2009
Ancientwood NewsletterAugust-September 2009 |
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ANCIENTWOOD DONATES A TABLE TO ABC-TV’s EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITIONOn August 3, the popular television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” traveled to the small town of South Range, in Douglas County WI, to tell the Huber family that they were receiving a newly built, energy efficient home. Howard Huber is a decorated firefighter, while his wife Jessica is pursuing a nursing degree at Lake Superior College. Together Howard and Jessica have two children, Henry and Rosie. A few years ago the Hubers bought a decrepit farmhouse, figuring that Howard could fix it up, as he used to work in construction. After doing everything they could to restore the old house, unfortunately the Hubers found that their house was beyond repair. The two-story house had a separating chimney, severe water damage, improperly installed windows, and the electrical, heat, and sewage systems were unsafe. Every time Howard went to work he feared that the next 911 call he received would be from his own home. Ty Pennington and the gang were called in to fulfill Howard's wish to live in a home that would be safe for his wife and children. Ancientwood wanted to be a part of Howard's wish, and assist “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” in the design process. After contacting Builders Commonwealth, the local contact for this Makeover, it was decided that Ancientwood would construct a seven-foot Ancient Kauri dining table for the Hubers. Made from a single slab of 50,000 year-old Ancient Kauri, we split the slab into two pieces before cutting it to the desired seven feet in length. The inside edges were hand-tooled, creating an interesting textured surface where the two slabs meet, with the natural edges of the slab facing out. The base is a very simple metal design. A once in a lifetime opportunity for Ancientwood, this table is the centerpiece of Ty Pennington’s own “special room” design You can catch a tour of the Huber’s new home, by tuning in to the season premiere of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” airing September 27 on ABC. The Emmy award winning reality program “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” now entering its 7th season, is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol Holding. Executive-producer is Anthony Dominici. David Goldberg is Chairman, Endemol North America. The show airs Sundays from 8:00-9:00 p.m., ET on ABC. The Huber’s home is a two-hour special, airing at 7:00 ET. We anticipate a rush of orders after the show broadcasts. If you have projects in mind for the fall, we suggest you order as soon as possible while there is a good selection of inventory. Pictures of the donated table will be available in our next newsletter. |
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PIECE OF THE MONTH(Previously called Piece of the Week) The most recent featured piece is a beautiful large slab with remarkable active grain--this piece has some of the most interesting grain we have ever seen. One of a family of four slabs, this is the shortest of the group, and absolutely packed with action! |
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We understand that these wild edges tend to make some nervous. A few thoughts on how to make this slab into a more conventional shape, without loosing the power of the grain:
We can suggest more interesting design solutions if you want to call with your ideas for this unique slab. No matter how this slab is treated, as a finished piece it will be a true beauty! |
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TOP CHOICESThe following boards are the new “top choices” from Ancientwood. Get yours before it's gone! These boards are handpicked by the crew at Ancientwood to be especially fine boards. |
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Click on the pictures for a link to each piece's page on our website. |
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 1130 |
 1129 |
 1233 |
 1131 |
 1245-1 |
 1214 |
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DELIVERY TO CHARLOTTEAncientwood has recently delivered four beautiful natural edged slab tables and a hostess desk to Enso opens to the public on August 28, 2009. Be sure to check out the great slab tabletops while having a delicious meal! See this weeks “Piece of the Week” be clicking the photo below: |
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YOU CAN NOW FOLLOW ANCIENTWOOD ON THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES: |
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HOW TO CLEAN AND RE-DRESS NATURAL EDGESJust underneath the remaining bark of the Ancient Kauri wood is a textured and meandering edge with smooth, almost sensuous texture, amid shifting tones of color. It is inevitable that portions of these beautiful natural edges get dinged or scraped somewhere along the way - some quite badly damaged, or even completely missing. We are often re-dressing these damaged edges, trying to bring back the special character. Occasionally the natural edges arrive in perfect condition, just needing a simple cleaning. We have a small arsenal of tools that we use to do this re-dressing. Included in this tool kit are wire brushes of all sorts, from paint-stripping stiff brushes to circular wire brushes that run from large diameters to very small diameters. We also use disk sanders from 5 to 8 inches, belt sanders, “flapper-wheels,” and a couple of small hand grinders, with metal-toothed, wood-eating disks in them. And of course, our hand wood-carving chisels and gouges are included too. We begin by assessing where the natural edge would have been in relation to the area to be re-dressed. If the piece we are re-dressing is a cut edge, we watch for the flow of grain in the surrounding wood and it will usually “suggest” where to bring the new natural edge. As these areas are marked with chalk, connecting from one swirl, curl, or shift in grain into another, it is often as straight forward as connecting the dots. Although, there are times when the path is not so clear and we need to use an eye towards aesthetics and experience to mark out the new natural edge. This is a three-dimensional process, not simply cutting at 90 degrees, but we include the undercutting of the bottom to create what we call “fall-away.” The extent of this fall-away cutting is suggested by the surrounding areas of natural edges which tell us what the edge character should be: aggressive fall-away, gentle fall-away, or shaping it to something closer to 90 degrees. Once the path of the natural edge has been cut and the amount of fall-away has been cut into what is now becoming a “re-dressed” natural edge, the details of tooling the textures begin. To match the textures we look at the existing grain to see how it is raised. The grain will vary for every piece and edge. It is important to let the adjacent areas that have natural edges tell the tale.
If there has been strong aggressive cutting of material in one of the earlier steps, a combination of carving tools (hand or power) will be useful in getting the shapes, waves and curls cut back into the edges. After cutting the finer details of the grain, a wire brush is applied to the surface, which brings even more of the fine grain details to the top. (While not a rule, generally the finer and softer the wire-brush, the finer the grain texture it will bring to the surface. The rougher and stiffer the wire bristles of the brush, the deeper and more pronounced the grain texture becomes.) We do think that the best methods for anyone are the methods they prefer the most--taking into account the tools and equipment that work best for them. While the techniques outlined here work well for us, these are not hard-n-fast rules for working with Ancient Kauri; they are simply the methods that work the best for us.
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What a difference a finish makes! Check out our new “Before and After” web-page:http://www.ancientwood.com/before-and-after We recently started a new page on our website to illustrate the amazing differences in the Ancient Kauri wood from before finishing begins and after projects have been finished. |
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SEND YOUR PICTURESYou can send me photos of your Ancient Kauri projects to have them posted on our web site under Customer Contributions, Click here to add your Ancient Kauri projects. |
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COMING IN FUTURE NEWSLETTERS:More technical articles describing:
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