Walnut Hall Bench
Note: I think most creative people have at least one project for which they somehow lack photo documentation. Sometimes photos turn out poorly, or they get misplaced, or sometimes your enthusiasm for actually doing the work can override the impulse to document at all. Stuff happens. This...is one of THOSE projects for me. So, when I found this one image I was excited enough to share it here, despite the partial view. And the lack of scale. Or context.
This 42" by 13" walnut board came from the floor of an extremely old barn in Lancaster PA. It had scratches, dents, and a few forged square-head nails embedded in it. Suffice to say: it had seen some things. However, there was something about the feel of its tapered edges that made me want to just...grab on. Once it was cleaned up and lightly sanded, I just stabilized the checking with a couple of butterfly splines. I even retained the square nails because they felt like part of that board's story. Instead of using any kind of polyurethane, I applied a deep penetrating, hard wax & oil finish in order to retain a more natural, open-pore feel.
To support the walnut bench seat I fabricated and powder coated a light, minimal, steel frame that attempted to follow the board's slightly serpentine length. The image provides only a hint of the frame, but the wood was always intended to be the main attraction anyway.
