Solid Wood!

As you might guess, I love solid wood. I will use solid wood down to the most minor components of a piece. "Solid wood" furniture that is sold on the market today often does not have solid wood drawer bottoms or drawer sides. Generally they are made of plywood.

I thought I would show a bit of construction of my drawers. Each piece for the drawer bottom is resawn from larger stock and tongue and groove routed to fit together. They are held in place by a dado cut within the drawer sides, completely housing the drawer bottom with the exception of the back that is left open to allow for wood movement. Here are a few photos of the drawers parts and their construction.

Why don't I use plywood? There are some advantages to plywood such as very little wood movement which means it is quite stable. A good thing for mass production. However, I have deep concerns over the glues that are used in plywood. Most have formaldehyde to some degree or another in them. These create serious contaminates for indoor air quality. I feel that if you are buying quality custom pieces that are meant to last generations then they should serve those who use them to their benefit including their health. Maybe you agree.

A Positive Note

If you are anything like me you struggle to balance sustainable living with a modern life style. Such as when you simply want to recycle your glass bottles and jars. For me in my community there is no recycling service for glass so I can either throw it in the trash (gasp) or drive it an hour (one way) to recycle it. Now I ask myself "how much non renewable resources am I using to do this"?

A driving factor in my desire to build furniture has been rooted in the need to add something to our community that adds real and lasting value without compromising our natural resources in the process. It pains my conscience to think about building something that I am not totally convinced that it will last a lifetime. A basic requirement in designing and building furniture for me is that it must last as long (preferably longer) than it took to grow the tree from which the wood came from. This is the only way furniture can be sustainable. There is no getting around it. And really we have no excuse as a society not be able to accomplish this simple goal. The design criteria has been established for quality construction for at least a couple hundred years.

What prompted this blog entry was really to share some positive news about the health of our forest here in the US. According to one government agency that keeps records of our forestry, since 1953 there are 199% more hardwoods being grown in the US today compared to then. That was a surprise to me. It makes me feel good to see that in this area of conservation we are getting it right. I hope we continue to do so.

So then buy hardwood furniture. Demand that it be quality built. Then use it and pass it on.

Chair Making with Green Wood

Green wood is a term for wood that is still "wet" and has not yet been dried. It is not a term meant to refer to its ecological benefits. Though it does have several benefits for the environment when using it in stead of the alternatives.

You have probably given thought to the impact of a tree being cut down on our environment. If you have the option no doubt you choose to buy only wood products taken from sustainably manage forests, otherwise know as FSC Certified woods. But have you ever given much thought on the impact to carbon emissions by how wood is dried?

Consider how long it takes to dry a piece of two inch thick wood. This is the size that most round chair parts start from. It would take about 3- 4 months in a natural gas kiln to dry a piece of wood this thick. Yes that is right, months, not days. Otherwise this same piece of wood would take about 3 years to dry in the open air. It is not surprising that our modern society demands kiln dried wood.

However it is not necessary to use kiln dried woods to produce fine furniture, especially chairs. In fact some traditional chair makers still produce amazing chairs with green wood (see picture below). To do this it requires a very good understanding of wood, how it shrinks and expands with moisture content. When thinking of "traditional built" furniture in this way don't think "rustic" think sophisticated, because it actually was and is. The chair making process can actually take advantage of green wood characteristics to make them stronger. I will talk more about the use of "wet/ dry" joinery in upcoming blogs.

There is an additional benefit to the producer when working with green wood. Wood dust is a health risk to the worker that inhales it. However, wood that is cut while being high in moisture content prevents much of it becoming airborne and then being inhaled.

At Kapel Designs we produce our chairs with green wood that is air dried at every chance we get. Since many large saw mills don't want to bother with offering green wood we have spent much time in just acquiring this material by working with small local saw mills that appreciate what we are doing to contribute to better made furnishings and a commitment to our environment. Yes, this takes special effort to produce furniture this way. But we think it is worth all the effort. We hope you do to.