Ancientwood Newsletter

January 14, 2009

Free Shipping Through January – See Details Below

Getting the Maximum Return from Your LEED Project

Ancient Kauri presents a number of excellent opportunities for LEED* credits in New Construction or Major Renovations. It can be used as (but not limited to): Material for beams and posts, flooring, paneling, doors and frames, cabinetry and furniture, and decorative items.

Ancient Kauri can provide up to three credits in the following classifications:

• Credit 3.1: Materials Reuse, 5%
• Credit 3.2: Materials Reuse, 10%

Using our Low-Emitting Coatings on the Ancient Kauri:

• Credit 4.2: Low-Emitting Materials

Let Ancientwood provide you with an alternative to typically harvested exotic veneers.

Truly unique and stunningly beautiful: Ancient Kauri should be used in areas where quality and dignity are a must. It will illustrate your concern for our environment and be an unequaled thought-provoking display of longevity.

We have production-orientated supply with project sourcing "from the log to you". Due to the enormous size of the logs, the grain, color tones and dimensions can be matched to your exact specifications resulting in products you will not find anywhere else in the industry today.

Your project is important to us and we hope to hear from you soon.

New Finished Pieces Available Through Website

Ancientwood.com is now offering a limited edition of small Ancient Kauri finished products online available for immediate purchase. These items include cutting boards, paperweights, jewelry display cases and more. All are engraved with the Ancientwood, Ltd. stamp and are hand-made by our artisans.

• 

  These desk-sized pieces are hand-crafted so no two are alike. Hand-rubbed with an organic boiled linseed oil finish topped with organic linseed beeswax.

  http://www.ancientwood.com/catalog/ancient-kauri-engraved-peices

• Food safe cutting boards with an organic, cold-pressed walnut oil finish.

  http://www.ancientwood.com/catalog/ancient-kauri-cutting-boards

  

• Jewelry cases with glass shelving. Finished with a satin polyurethane.

  http://www.ancientwood.com/catalog/ancient-kauri-display-cases

  

Free Shipping through January!

Ancientwood would like to help both of our shops a bit busier. The entire stock of individual blocks, bundles and packets available through ancientwood.com will be shipped immediately upon purchase with no shipping costs through the month of January. We offer jewelry bundles, wood carvers and turners bundles, pen blanks, pen turner boards, scrap boxes, blocks, and more. Be sure to check out our online catalog at http://www.ancientwood.com/catalog.

Composite Freeform Desk

A recent finished piece from Ancientwood was a custom-designed desk made from several slabs of Ancient Kauri. Our designers worked very closely with the customer and the entire desk is built out of three inch thick Ancient Kauri slabs. An angled base was created from four slabs cut and joined together making an incredibly strong foundation for the composite freeform top.

The desktop uses five separate slabs arranged to blend the unique wood grain. Instead of joining at random, these slabs were fitted together according to their natural shape to dictate the final form. Once satisfied with the overall shape of the top, epoxy was used to fill any voids surrounding the slabs. The final effect was a "river" running through the desktop making the piece a very dynamic example of Ancient Kauri furniture.

Wood on the Water

The new shipments of Ancient Kauri from New Zealand are currently en route to Ancientwood. The expected arrival date is February 12th. Be sure to watch the newsletters for more information on these new shipments.

Woodworking Tips: A Regular Feature of Ancientwood's Newsletter

Checks and Crack Filling

When working with the Ancient Kauri, it is not uncommon to encounter small areas in the surface of the piece that need filling. These cracks do not pose any structural problems but are dealt with more from the aesthetic point of view and are easily remedied if they are unwanted. In this Woodworking Tips article, we will outline typical procedures that Ancientwood uses for filling a piece containing these checks or cracks.

After the piece is flattened (planed) and sanded up to 400 grit any hairline cracks or checks that could be sanded out will have already disappeared, leaving those that you may want to fill.

With the Ancient Kauri wood still raw and unfinished, a common water-based wood filler works very well for these hairline cracks. Our putties come from the local hardware store, and with a variety of colors in hand we mix and match the colors to match the tones of wood in the area we are filling.

At this point it may be worthwhile spraying a bit of mineral spirits on an area nearby. This will give you a "preview", showing you the color the Ancient Kauri will be once a proper finish has been applied. Matching the color of the filler to the wood grain "preview" will lessen the chances of these checks being seen ever again.

Once filled, continue sanding up to 800 grit and reapply filler as needed. Sand to 2000 grit and apply your favorite top coat.

What to Look For in Future Issues

More technical articles describing:

• Stabilizing structural cracks
• Natural edge reworking
• Epoxy infills
• Varnishing techniques
• Epoxy coating for commercial duty
• Highlighted finished pieces
• Photos of the new 40 foot board arriving soon!

* Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a program by the U. S. Green Building Council (usgbc.org)