Woodworking and furniture rant

[Bigfatcock]

If you pay $1,500 for a ‘Rustic farmhouse table’ you’re dumb AF.

I don’t get it. People literally pay fine furniture money for a rectangle made from a cut list of shit hardware store lumber. You don’t even need fine joinery, just screws. Throw on a crappy finish so it’s blotchy and ‘rustic’.

Blows my mind.

$300 for a hall bench that is still just a rectangle of shit hardware store lumber cut from a cut list and crappy staining and finishing.

I mean, it’s easy money on the maker side, but damn is it just low skill garbage to put in your home. I just don’t get it.

If your significant other wants rustic, hardware store lumber furniture at fine furniture prices, then immediately file for divorce.

Fight me.

 

[MtnCreek]

You have any pics of working with reclaim wood?

 

[Bigfatcock]

You have any pics of working with reclaim wood?

I do, and can post them later, but it’s not what you think. I rarely leave the old mill marks in. I use reclaimed wood to get my hands on species and sizes that are not common anymore. Real heart pine is a major part of it.

 

[eca7891]

Which is why I made all my own furniture

 

[TheGerman]

You just want us to ask for pictures of your wood, dont you.

 

[Bigfatcock]

You just want us to ask for pictures of your wood, dont you.

 

[MtnCreek]

Do you work with any wormy wood? Chestnut, maple?

 

[rtB]

1500 is a good deal, that's 6 2x4s.

 

[shields shtr]

I live in the land of "Rustic Reclaimed Mega Mansions". You pay extra to import termites, ants, and other grubby little critters into your house. Not to mention all the extra labor to construct everything plumb, level, and square because you have to have "live edge" this and that and all the other ridiculous architectural verbal vomit. I am all about reusing shit to save some money, but paying extra for a subjective aesthetic with zero performance gain isn't my cup of tea. To each their own I guess.

 

[Bigfatcock]

Do you work with any wormy wood? Chestnut, maple?

Quite a bit.

 

[Bigfatcock]

I live in the land of "Rustic Reclaimed Mega Mansions". You pay extra to import termites, ants, and other grubby little critters into your house. Not to mention all the extra labor to construct everything plumb, level, and square because you have to have "live edge" this and that and all the other ridiculous architectural verbal vomit. I am all about reusing shit to save some money, but paying extra for a subjective aesthetic with zero performance gain isn't my cup of tea. To each their own I guess.

A borate treatment will get rid of all the creepy crawlers.

Get the stock milled to be used isn’t too labor intensive, especially if it came from an interior and isn’t full of rot.

Live edges not my thing either, but are all the rage. People pay big $$ for a half finished piece, lol.

I’m down south helping a friend streamline his wood working business, put in and set machines, and I lol’d at the amount of money he makes for ‘Farm furniture’. We’ve both been doing this for awhile, and he can build top shelf quality furniture but his biggest and most frequent sellers are construction lumber rectangles, lol.

For a couple hundred more you could have a heirloom walnut or cherry piece.

 

[Slash0311]

While I'll definitely agree that some areas and markets pay ridiculous money for some pieces, most are not.

When I do work in my shop, I'm doing good to get about $10 an hour as an average.

The two pics are examples of my work. The clock had about 150 hours and the box hand about 20 or so.



 

[Im2bent]

Wait till you find out that people pay extra for "Distressed" furnishings.

 

[JJMoody]

Hate working with old barn wood. Probably why half the stuff on our place is old barn wood and rusty metal.

 

[Bigfatcock]

Wait till you find out that people pay extra for "Distressed" furnishings.

It’s the same as buying jeans with holes, and battle worn gun finishes.

 

[Bigfatcock]

So much character, lol.

 

[hollowoutadime]

I think I have about $900 in this slab I flattened.

Well, $900 for the walnut. Another $1500 for the tools. That's just how it is.
Used a Woodpecker jig and a router to flatten it.
Seats 10.

 

[Odysseus1911]

C'mon. You wouldn't be proud to have your name on these gems?

I mean, who wouldn't want to pay $1500 for a piece of furniture that looks like it was put on the beach at low tide and picked up a week later?

 

[Bigfatcock]

C'mon. You wouldn't be proud to have your name on these gems?

View attachment 7842902View attachment 7842903View attachment 7842904
I mean, who wouldn't want to pay $1500 for a piece of furniture that looks like it was put on the beach at low tide and picked up a week later?

That’s the sad part! People do spend that, all the fucking time for busted ass looking furniture. You can add a $200 premium for slapping on some milk paint and sanding half of it off!

Little did I know that my saw bench could double as a $300 rustic hall bench, lol.

Rustic and handmade. Will let it go for $350.

 

[Hobo Hilton]

Start your own TV show:

Flea Market Flip

Watch clips and full episodes of Flea Market Flip from HGTV

www.hgtv.com

 

[Blackcreek]

Look up some of the hybrid turning blocks and epoxy "River" tables.
Pieces/scraps of wood I throw into the trash or burn add a lot of epoxy with dye and glitter and sell for big bucks

 

[Bigfatcock]

Look up some of the hybrid turning blocks and epoxy "River" tables.
Pieces/scraps of wood I throw into the trash or burn add a lot of epoxy with dye and glitter and sell for big bucks

This too!!! I say the same things about tables and other furniture. Small cracks and knots, that’s a normal thing to epoxy fill, but when 25% of the table/furniture is epoxy I’m dumbfounded.

I mean, I can’t really talk shit because they’re moving a product with wood that I would normally throw away or break into smaller stock for smaller things.

Same with my friend. He can build beautiful stuff, but sees no point when people pay good $$$ for a hardware store lumber table he can knock out in a day from a cut list.

 

[ZiaHunter]

Built a fly tying table for a friend using reclaimed heart pine. The wood was too beautiful to distress and used Behlen Rock Hard Table varnish for the top and Sutherland Wells wiping varnish for the table base. Mortise and tenon joinery with hand cut dovetails for the drawers. Knobs made from cherry and turned on a lathe.

 

[Bigfatcock]

Built a fly tying table for a friend using reclaimed heart pine. The wood was too beautiful to distress and used Behlen Rock Hard Table varnish for the top and Sutherland Wells wiping varnish for the table base. Mortise and tenon joinery with hand cut dovetails for the drawers. Knobs made from cherry and turned on a lathe.

View attachment 7843276View attachment 7843278

Now that is furniture!! Did you drawbore the M&T?

Half blind Dovetails, nicely executed breadboard ends, tapered legs. Wonderful proportions, and you can access each drawer while sitting center. And look at the fit of those drawers!

Just a beautiful piece.

 

[ZiaHunter]

Thank you. The mortises were drilled on a Powermatic 719 mortiser and tenons cut on a table saw. Chopped many mortises with mortise chisels and cut tenons with a hand saw but just too time consuming. Still do on occasion on smaller ones. Prefer to do dovetails with hand tools since the jigs just don't give you the nice proportions. Big fan of Shaker and Moravian style and most of what I build incorporates those elements.

 

[Bigfatcock]

Thank you. The mortises were drilled on a Powermatic 719 mortiser and tenons cut on a table saw. Chopped many mortises with mortise chisels and cut tenons with a hand saw but just too time consuming. Still do on occasion on smaller ones. Prefer to do dovetails with hand tools since the jigs just don't give you the nice proportions. Big fan of Shaker and Moravian style and most of what I build incorporates those elements.

I thought the table had some shaker elements on the base, but the lack of underside top bevel threw me off.

Very nice table.

A lot more consistency with the power tools for sure, and huge time savers. What takes me over 30 minutes to an hour with the hand planes is done in about 15 seconds on a jointer.

 

[ZiaHunter]

U

I thought the table had some shaker elements on the base, but the lack of underside top bevel threw me off.

Very nice table.

A lot more consistency with the power tools for sure, and huge time savers. What takes me over 30 minutes to an hour with the hand planes is done in about 15 seconds on a jointer.

Use the big power tools mostly for rough dimensioning since it is such a time saver. Do most of my fit and finish with planes and chisels. Table top had a hand planed and scraped finish and not sanded. There is nothing like the feel and sound of a finely tuned hand plane going over wood.

 

[SmokyJoe]

Wait till you find out that people pay extra for "Distressed" furnishings.

Back when this shit-show began, I think the companies, like Pottery Barn, who were getting their ass kicked with returns for ‘blemishes’ decided to make blemishes a coveted feature. From there it was all downhill. Craftsmanship, professionalism, and giving a shit took a back seat to ‘sell that shit‘, which soon became a thing you had to have. Marketing with a vengeance. I saw an ‘armoire’ that had been beat to death with a golf shoe, as if it had been in a French farmhouse for generations, ravaged by Louis IV beetles, which by magic had extracted wood and structural value to arrive at something to be coveted. A sucker born every minute.

Super nice dovetails on that fly tying table! Hand cut proportions beat machine cut for sure.

 

[Bigfatcock]

U

Use the big power tools mostly for rough dimensioning since it is such a time saver. Do most of my fit and finish with planes and chisels. Table top had a hand planed and scraped finish and not sanded. There is nothing like the feel and sound of a finely tuned hand plane going over wood.

I agree on all. Chunk of paraffin wax in the apron and oil rag in a can on the bench.

 

[TxWelder35]

We need a woodworking thread.

 

[Im2bent]

So I worked a bit for an extremely high end cabinet shop. I'm talking projects for big time celebrities. One job was I was involved in was a huge place in Beverly hills. It was being completely re-done. They put new wooden floors in. They were gorgeous, looked like a gigantic bowling lane. Perfectly flat,smooth, and you could not see any flaws. I come back a week later and the floors looked like someone had held a circle track race with studded tires.
I asked if the place had been vandalised, nope they beat the shit out of those floors with chains.its the distressed look.

 

[CMP70306]

Look up some of the hybrid turning blocks and epoxy "River" tables.
Pieces/scraps of wood I throw into the trash or burn add a lot of epoxy with dye and glitter and sell for big bucks

This too!!! I say the same things about tables and other furniture. Small cracks and knots, that’s a normal thing to epoxy fill, but when 25% of the table/furniture is epoxy I’m dumbfounded.

I mean, I can’t really talk shit because they’re moving a product with wood that I would normally throw away or break into smaller stock for smaller things.

Same with my friend. He can build beautiful stuff, but sees no point when people pay good $$$ for a hardware store lumber table he can knock out in a day from a cut list.

I’d have to respectfully disagree there, if done right some of those epoxy tables can be pretty cool under the right circumstances.

To me those look way cooler in a shore house, mountain cabin or outdoors themed room compared to a regular table but it’s definitely too much for a normal dining room.

The ones where they use a straight edge and just pour some epoxy in it do however look dumb, if you aren’t going to get creative then it’s just a normal table with cheaper material substituted in.

Also the distressed look is dumb too, I can understand wanting rustic looking wood and hardware rather high gloss and fine edges but the normal looking shit with the half sanded off paint jobs are stupid.

 

[Bigfatcock]

I’d have to respectfully disagree there, if done right some of those epoxy tables can be pretty cool under the right circumstances.

View attachment 7843401View attachment 7843400View attachment 7843399

To me those look way cooler in a shore house, mountain cabin or outdoors themed room compared to a regular table but it’s definitely too much for a normal dining room.

The ones where they use a straight edge and just pour some epoxy in it do however look dumb, if you aren’t going to get creative then it’s just a normal table with cheaper material substituted in.

Also the distressed look is dumb too, I can understand wanting rustic looking wood and hardware rather high gloss and fine edges but the normal looking shit with the half sanded off paint jobs are stupid.

Really pretty tables. Those take skill and artistic ability.

Much more skill than the aforementioned blocking off a square and dumping epoxy in.

I also hate sapwood.

Fine edges and clean lines are important to me, as well as proportion. Finish is on the end user. I prefer gloss, many prefer satin. Pores should be filled.

 

[TxWelder35]

Y’all go post your projects

Maggie’s - The Wood Shop

Alright it appears there are quite a few of y’all that do some woodworking around here. Post up your projects! I’ll start off with some cutting boards I did for Christmas.

www.snipershide.com

 

[Bigfatcock]

Y’all go post your projects

Maggie’s - The Wood Shop

Alright it appears there are quite a few of y’all that do some woodworking around here. Post up your projects! I’ll start off with some cutting boards I did for Christmas.

www.snipershide.com

Dick pics?

 

[chevy_man]

I wired a bunch of equipment for a local painter/finisher.

He had a big planer looking machine but it held dingle ball hone looking contraptions. Feed nice brand new rough cut wood in and it came out looking like 50 years of abuse. Feed it through the gray stain bath next and you have fresh lumber that looks 100 years old. He was making a killing selling the look without the problem of actually sourcing old wood.


It's the look here, I'm wiring a $5 million house that has timbers with cow shit stuck in them. The carpenters make it a point to try and get any shit filled boards right around the windows and doors where it's easily visible. Owners think it's great, but they're California transplants with houses on both coasts so all they care about is the house fits their theme for a "Montana cabin".

 

[Bigfatcock]

Farmhouse tables may have been made with leftover rough sawn lumber, but that was mainly for the ultra poors. Typical traditional farmhouse tables were actually quite nice, and I can see granny beating a kid’s ass for denting the table.

A well built drop leaf table or extendable table was what you would find in most homes. Poors would have lower grade woods, middle class probably a maple or similar class, and the well to do would have cherry or another high grade wood.

Studying old furniture is fascinating. You could see where effort was focused on the show faces and joinery, but non show faces were usually left in the rough.

 

[TxWelder35]

Dick pics?

Pretty sure go green Juan has us covered there

 

[Snipe260]

If you pay $1,500 for a ‘Rustic farmhouse table’ you’re dumb AF.

I don’t get it. People literally pay fine furniture money for a rectangle made from a cut list of shit hardware store lumber. You don’t even need fine joinery, just screws. Throw on a crappy finish so it’s blotchy and ‘rustic’.

Blows my mind.

$300 for a hall bench that is still just a rectangle of shit hardware store lumber cut from a cut list and crappy staining and finishing.

I mean, it’s easy money on the maker side, but damn is it just low skill garbage to put in your home. I just don’t get it.

If your significant other wants rustic, hardware store lumber furniture at fine furniture prices, then immediately file for divorce.

Fight me.

But what if she tells you that you can fuck her on it? Bet you would skin that wallet out faster than Clint Eastwood in a gun duel!

 

[Bigfatcock]

But what if she tells you that you can fuck her on it? Bet you would skin that wallet out faster than Clint Eastwood in a gun duel!

$150 hooker is cheaper

 

[whilsonh]

I'm not surprised by the prices anymore. But I would pay $1,5 k for a table only it was handmade, designed and created specially for me, and made of solid wood

 

[Bigfatcock]

I'm not surprised by the prices anymore. But I would pay $1,5 k for a table only it was handmade, designed and created specially for me, and made of solid wood

That was 2022 prices. That table will run you $2,000-$2,500 now.

 

[LeftyJason]

I'm not surprised by the prices anymore. But I would pay $1,5 k for a table only it was handmade, designed and created specially for me, and made of solid wood

Check out these people. Lots more than that.

https://www.thosmoser.com/

 

[748rpilot]

That was 2022 prices. That table will run you $2,000-$2,500 now.

What should one expect to pay for something like that fly table the other gent posted?

I'm finally at a point in life where I'm looking at buying furniture, and to say I was disappointed at the local furniture stores is an understatement. Nobody has any style or class anymore. I miss the cherry drop leaf tables, China cabinets and chairs of my upbringing.

Any suggestions on finding local craftsman / carpenters for e.g. coffee tables, end tables and such?

 

[JJMoody]

A buddy of mine just finished up this smallish dining table. Live edge maple on an old iron barrel stand. Old rusty metal burnished with a wire wheel to a nice luster.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

What should one expect to pay for something like that fly table the other gent posted?

I'm finally at a point in life where I'm looking at buying furniture, and to say I was disappointed at the local furniture stores is an understatement. Nobody has any style or class anymore. I miss the cherry drop leaf tables, China cabinets and chairs of my upbringing.

Any suggestions on finding local craftsman / carpenters for e.g. coffee tables, end tables and such?

Just watch things like Craig’s list and FB marketplace. Tons of fine furniture goes for nothing.

Learn to refinish properly and you can bring it back to Edwardian splendor for peanuts!

Cheers!

Sirhr

 

[Sean the Nailer]

FWIW, I'm looking at building new seat pedestals as well as retractable tables (a-la-airplane type) for our boat. The cost of the teak lumber, and machinery to work it is FAR beyond my budget abilities. So we watched for a large, teak, drop-leaf table at the auction houses, and found one. $120.00 got us the 'prepared' lumber that we needed. I can't complain about that at all. Re-finishing it when it's done is a snap.

Using the same acid/alkaline process for prepping it like we've done for so much of the rest of the boat, works FABULOUSLY.

 

[Bigfatcock]

FWIW, I'm looking at building new seat pedestals as well as retractable tables (a-la-airplane type) for our boat. The cost of the teak lumber, and machinery to work it is FAR beyond my budget abilities. So we watched for a large, teak, drop-leaf table at the auction houses, and found one. $120.00 got us the 'prepared' lumber that we needed. I can't complain about that at all. Re-finishing it when it's done is a snap.

Using the same acid/alkaline process for prepping it like we've done for so much of the rest of the boat, works FABULOUSLY.

Yep. I’ve turned out of old furniture into other items!