Fabric Samples

Wood Samples 

Cherry - Walnut - Maple - Mango - Blackwood - Bubinga

We specialize in certain woods for certain furniture. While the Brendan Rocker and Ottoman is built in all woods, other pieces are only built in specific woods. The Pacific Rocker is standard in Cherry, Walnut and Eastern Maple. Barstools are standard in Cherry, Walnut or Figured Western Maple. Dining chairs are standard in  Cherry, Walnut and Eastern Maple. We can always make up a custom wood piece but the price is higher just for the  special handling and tracking as we move through the shop making parts and building the furniture as well as for the increased cost to us of various woods. And lastly, non-standard woods require an extra 3-4 months lead time because we must make all the parts from scratch. We do not practice mass-production. Each person can and does build from start to finish, but we work in teams on small batches. We do make most chairs parts in advance in reasonable size batches, hence our "standard" woods.

Fabric Samples

Cherry Prunus Serotina

This traditional wood is native to North America, we get our Cherry from the Applachian plateau of Pennsylvania.A strong, close-grained hardwood, it deepens to a rich reddish brown patina with age. Sunlight merely accelerates this inevitable process. Sun will eventually start to bleach the color, so maintain the richness of Cherry by avoiding windows! thin weeks or months to a red-brown color. Direct or reflected sunlight hastens this darkening yet in the end the wood will reach a darker state with or without sunlight. Fading and lighter colors can eventually result from prolonged exposure to sunlight. This American wood is a classic in fine furniture. Cherry is a selection in all our furniture. 

Black Walnut Juglans nigra

This is commonly used "Walnut" from the eastern United States. With time Black Walnut will lighten to a tawny brown color. Because of this lightening process I shade the wood with a very mild "walnut" color to help hold it's appearance. 

A large tree  which is a member of the Olive family growing to 115 feet in height. The wood is white, strong, and straight-grained. The name White Ash apparently derives from the glaucous undersides of the leaves. Ash trees only live to hundred years. It is the timber of choice for production of baseball bats and tool handles. The wood is also favorable for furniture and flooring. due to it's strength.

We use two kinds of maple. Broadleaf Maple or Acer macrophyllum is used for the Brendan Rocker, Barstools and Benches and is selected for intense figure and interesting color.  All Dining chairs in Maple are Eastern Sugar Maple Acer Saccarum, also known as Rock Maple. Western Broadleaf Maple is a warmer color than the more common eastern Sugar Maple, which is more white.  Most people do not want the figured Maple for an entire set because it is quite busy. Figured Maple on any Dining chairs is a special order and additional cost will apply.

Up to 120 feet tall and 9 feet in diameter, Broadleaf Maple has played an important role in the Pacific Northwest for millennia. It’s range extends from coastal, central British Columbia, Canada, all the way south to Southern California, U.S.   

Historically, Broadleaf Maples were an important resource to First Nations peoples, who carved the wood and used the huge leaves as a cooking tool. Today this Maple is an important wood for furniture, flooring and boatbuilding. One in a hundred trees contain exotic grain like Tiger Maple and fiddleback, or a wide range of twisted and curly figure. It is a tough strong wood which cuts nice and clean, with excellent machining qualities. Broadleaf  Maples tend to be found in dry to moist sites that suffer from fire, erosion, logging, and other disturbances. They are found in low to middle elevation forests in monoculture stands or within mixed Douglas-fir/Hemlock forests. Maple is also the principal forest species in areas where the land is burned or logged.

Open-grained and streaked with pinks Mango is undoubtedly  the most striking and rich woods we use. Moderate in density and hardness and "Tropical" in appearance due to it's lack of seasonal growth rings. Mango is prone to scuff marks. Greenish yellow when freshly sawn, I have to control the moisture during the drying process to encourage the pinks, purple and grey colors. Mango is only available as a standard wood in the Brendan Rocker and Ottoman. Mango in any other furniture will require 3-4 months extra time as well as an increased cost due to my wood cost differential and extra shop time building a "custom" piece.

Blackwood Acacia melanoxylon, orange-brown in color, looks remarkably like Koa but is not figured. Like Koa it is an Acacia and the two tree species are closely related, separated only by four thousand miles of ocean. Blackwood is sustainably managed by the Australian government.

We  only use Blackwood in Wood seat Brendan Rockers, and the footrests on our Barstools.  Customer demand for the wood seat Brendan Rocker in Blackwood is overwhelming because it's beauty and grain is at it's best in the large, scooped seat.  Because shaping Blackwood chair legs requires different tooling geometry from Cherry or Walnut, we cannot use it to make Dining Chairs.

Click here to find out more about Tasmanian Blackwood on Tasmania Timber website.

Blackwood Acacia melanoxylon

Bubinga Guibourtia Demeusei

also known as African Rosewood or Buvenga

An exotic wood from equatorial east Africa, Bubinga (or Kevazingo) is known for its deep brownish-red color and dramatic highlights ranging from golden orange to dark purple. Its grain is fine and interlocking. Bubinga trees, which grow near lakes and riverbeds as well as marshes, are fairly large, with logs weighing up to 10 tons due to the wood’s density. While not endangered, the status of Bubinga is “vulnerable” or “threatened” so we must use it with care.

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