Some of you may be wondering what our building process looks like, and that is the purpose of this blog is to give an overview of what goes into building some of our orders.
Our first step is to make sure that the wood we are using for the project is dry enough; we dry our wood to about 13% before we begin using it in projects. The dryer, the better. This is to ensure it doesn't shrink when it is a completed project, and our customers don't have their furniture moved on them once it's in their home.
Once the boards are selected, we cut them to the proper size and begin laminating them together to get our top slab. It takes around 12 hours for the glue to dry, then we start the shaping process as we plane and sand the face side to make it smooth. We begin with 33 grit and work our way up to 150 grit for the final passes. After this point, most of the build is waiting for the next step in wood filling; we fill any imperfections such as knots and cracks. After this fully dries, we again sand to 150 grit to clean any excess wood fill.
Once we have thoroughly checked out the slab for anything we may have missed. Then it comes time to stain the project. We put on rubber gloves and ensure the stain is completely mixed as sometimes the stain can separate if it is sitting for an extended period. We make sure to take our time staining as we want a solid coat with no spots missed. To give us the most control while staining, we use sponges to help us spread the stain instead of brushes. This is more of a preference than the proper way as you could just as easily use a brush; it's just what we prefer.
We then let the stain dry, which is usually an overnight process, sometimes longer depending on how many coats of stain we have used. It has come time for the final touches, sealing the slab. We make sure to make the environment as dust free as possible to get a smooth coat. Then we use a high-quality brush to paint on our seal; we make sure to brush with the wood grain as it creates a nicer finished product. After the first coat dries, we check it for bubbles in the coat. If there are any bubbles, we take a scotch pad and sand it back lightly until it is smooth again, then we apply the next coat. We repeat this for usually three coats unless otherwise requested by our customer. After the final coat cures for 24 hours, it is finished and ready for our customer to pick up!
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