Barrel stave furniture

 Barrel staves

For those who have followed the development of Mr H Woodwork I am sure you have realised that my range of products has expanded considerably over the years. I try to respond to comments from followers and customers and find it fascinating what customers ask me to produce.

Two small jobs over Christmas  were a couple of wooden spoons and a small wooden ball to be attached to a chain/strap as a necklace.

The diversity of commissions and the feedback from people is what makes the job enjoyable.

As many of you are aware I am less than happy about the lack of imagination some people show and as such I am now pushing to make more of the barrel staves which I get from a local reclaims yard. The timber in the staves is usually good quality, often quarter sawn oak and it seems a pity to make night light holders from such a lovely material.

 

 

 

 

 

Furniture

Having made both floor and table lamps, I decided to try to use staves to make furniture. It is normal when making furniture to start with square stock, Barrel staves are anything but!! they taper from the centre along the length, becoming narrower at the ends, they also have a chamfer, being wider on the outside face than the inner charred face making it interesting when joining pieces together.

I am going to try to make a range of tables and stools, the intention being to have a standard end profile and adjust the length as required.

First attempt was a coffee table, standard frame for each end with a single curved stave linking the two ends. I managed to find a stave with a bung hole for this central rail.

A potential development of this is to make a stool with an upholstered top, but using the same design of frame for the ends. Extending this to a full barrel stave would give an upholstered bench approx 120cm long.

The top was made from a lovely English oak board biscuit jointed and attached to the cross rail of the end leg sections. screws were counter bored and a big debate was had as to whether or not to hide the plugs. I decided to make the plugs a feature, but they can be disguised if requested