Joinery

One of the most critical aspects of heirloom quality furniture is the joints. Whether it be 2 boards joined side to side to form a raised panel in a door, a rail meeting a stile on a face frame or an apron on a dining table, the joints are what will determine the life expanse of the furniture.
A coffee table will function with a scratch. A hall tree will hold a coat with a poorly sanded surface. But when the joint expires, so does the life of the furniture. The best case scenario when this happens is that the joint is broken and will only weaken further and cause other joints to give way because the broken joint is no longer functioning to support the weight, movement and other stresses on your furniture, and it is just the beginning of the demise rather than the final breath.
When a joint fails, your options are limited to


A) ignore it and let it deteriorate


B) Throw more money after your investment and pay for repair


C) Repair it yourself


D)replace it



The Knotty Woodworker combats a bad joint in many ways. For starters, at conception, the furniture is designed with only the best joinery available in my shop for each application. Let me start with what you WILL NOT find with furniture made by hand in the The Knotty Studio. You won't find construction nails or screws in any visible portion of my furniture. These are only used when they are permanently concealed.
You won't find a plastic wood grained circle sticker covering a screw head. Nor will you find cardboard backs barely stapled on. You won't find sticky drawers, poorly sanded surfaces, or loose pieces.
And, in the event that something misses my scrutiny, either in material or craftsmanship, all of my furniture comes with a 5 year warranty against defects in material or less than optimum craftsmanship - at no extra cost. Since I build furniture in such a way that it will be here in 50 years, 5 years is nothing to worry about.
Even if you buy a brand new home that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, you get a one year warranty!
I believe in my furniture. I have been trained by masters that had decades of experience and I listened well. Quality is 75% craftsmanship and 25% material selection.
The only complaints I have had in 3 years of business is that it takes too long. That is it! And sometimes it takes too long because quality is something that is sought after, it doesn't just happen. And, to be honest, I would really rather apologize for a completion delay than having to apologize for quality. Quite simply, the sting of poor quality will last much longer than the joy you will receive for a cheap purchase.




These are decorative in appearance, but are strengthening in function. See how the ends are smaller than the actual piece? That is the tenon section of a mortise and tenon joint. It is formed by cutting the work piece longer than what will be visible on the furniture. The outer area of the extra material is stripped away and a corresponding hole, or mortise, is made in the pieces which these will span. The result is an extremely strong joint with several glue surfaces. This is the most common joint used in table making. It can be used in many other areas, but different applications call for different types of joints. You can know that when you commission The Knotty Woodworker to build one of tomorrow's antiques for you, that much thought will be given to what will make the strongest connection between two pieces of wood. And that is what will be used, even in the event that I didn't charge for it. I have a long list of satisfied customers that would be glad to share with you their experience of dealing with The Knotty Woodworker and let you know how they received more than what they thought they were getting.





Here is what those pieces became. The tenons were 1" long and they extend into the adjoining rails a full inch. Quality. My furniture does cost more than what you can find in a manufactured furniture store. Except mine is handmade. Each piece of wood is specifically chosen for character and strength. And once I build a piece of furniture for you, it will never be replicated. It is and it remains one of a kind! You will never buy another one, whatever it is, unless you want two of them!
You can spend 500 bucks for a dresser that is one of thousands identically made and has no warranty once you take it home. In that choice, you may have a few colors to choose from, maybe it will be in your wood of preference, maybe not. It will be the size it is with no choice of modifying the dimensions. And, after a few short years, you will need to buy another dresser to replace it.
Or, you can spend $1200 bucks with The Knotty Woodworker, receive the highest quality available, along with a five year warranty, choose your wood species, finish and dictate the dimensions. And your grandkids will be able to enjoy it as well. You will spend money on furniture, but shouldn't it be the last time and shouldn't that hard earned money extend years into the future?

The Madison River Desk

I have been working on an executive desk. It is made from Beetle Kill Pine, one of a kind, and of heirloom quality. It was built in such a way that it will still be functional and useable and beautiful forty years from now and longer even. Here are the pictures of it in the client's home. I can build you almost anything out of this amazing wood - entertainment center coffee/end table set/ bed, dresser, etc. You can choose the rustic accents I incorporated in the desk, or I can build in contemporary or traditional styles without rustic accents - The wood itself is very rustic in appearance. View some of my earlier blogs to see the story behind the Beetle kill pine, my all natural, non-toxic finishing process and just why you should choose to order your handmade heirloom quality furniture through The Knotty Woodworker. Feel free to call me at 303 246 4766 to discuss your furniture needs. The quality will exceed your expectations, the beauty will captivate your family and friends and the cost will make your dollar go further than you imagined possible.


If you click on the images below, they will open up super size so you can see the rich detail.





The desk is 74" x 68" x 30" high





The drawer bank features hardwood dove tailed drawers. The pulls were handmade from a limb killed by the Mountain Pine Beetle.





When properly worked, end grain can be very beautiful.





There are three wire holes in the desktop for electronics. The wire chase continues underneath in the up right studs between the panels that comprise the wall. The wires then run behind the cabinet and out of the side of the cbinet in the toe kick.





Non-symetrical contours were added to replicate the natural edges of the wood as found in a log.





I had to chisel away the bark, exposing beetle burrow tracks in the "live" edge.





A beautiful knot on the live edge of the return side.





A Knot on the edge of the top. A nice contrast with the blue/black staining left by the Mountain Pine Beetles.





Mountain Pine Beetle burrow tracks in the live edge.





Doubled up "biscuits" used for alignment of the slabs and strength in the joint. Quality.





The drawer bank prior to installation.





Beetle burrow tracks in the handmade knobs.





You can see how the tracks are obvious on the sides of the handmade pulls, also.




The limb from which I made all the pulls.





I had some of the wood milled while I waited after choosing the logs personally. A sign of good working is grain selection and board placement. A step I NEVER overlook.





There is an Executive Desk and a gun cabinet in the back of the truck. I am not sure what else, but there is a lot of this wood available. What does your house need to Express Yourself?

Quality Drawers

Many consumers purchase furniture not just for how it looks, but because they need functionality. One of the best storage components available are drawers. You can access your belongings more easily that if it is just a compartment with a door.
But doesn't it really drive you crazy when a drawer no longer functions properly? In most cases, inoperable drawers are due to low quality guide systems and probably the next poor quality factor is when the drawer box itself breaks apart.The next common quality deficiency rears its head when the drawer front falls off of the drawer box. When you spend hard earned money to purchase furniture, the functionality of each piece should NEVER be an issue.
The Knotty Woodworker has very high personal standards for what I will create, market and sell. One of the ares I will not cut corners in is my drawer system. I use the best hardware and the best drawers available. Yes, it is more costly, but the fact of life is this; "The sting of poor quality lasts much longer than the joy received from a low price."
I don't require high quality drawer glides to put money in my pocket. I do so because, as my client, you DESERVE to have drawers that will operate like brand new 25 years from now.
Blum is a company that makes all types of cabinetry hardware and they are of the highest quality available. My drawer glides are made my Blum, they are called Blumotion. These under mount slides are not visible when the drawer is open. All you see is my drawer box.

These glides have a self-retracting mechanism that works much like a shock absorber. When the drawer is almost closed, the gas cylinder is fully extended. The pressure created on the cylinder when the drawer reaches this point causes the cylinder to slowly retract, softly closing the drawer. Not only is this a luxurious feature, but it prevents drawers from being slammed shut which prevents the drawer front from becoming loose or worse, as well as it keeps the shock from the slam from weakening the drawer box joints them selves.






Any piece of heirloom quality furniture with drawers that you design with The Knotty Woodworker will feature the Blumotion by Blum drawer glide system. I would much rather apologize for a slightly higher price than to apologize for poor quality.
When it comes to drawer boxes themselves, I offer two choices. The first is dovetailed drawers made from Beechwood. These are the best that money can buy. I fully guarantee my drawer boxes and my drawer glides for five full years, and the glides have a lifetime warranty by Blum. Think about it, a brand new house carries a one year warranty!



The other option are drawers made from solid wood in the same species of wood as your furniture. These are handmade and carry the same warranty. It is very painful to spend hundreds of dollars on a piece of manufactured furniture and have it malfunction after a short period of time. That is why handmade furniture from the Knotty Woodworker is your best value. Spending money with me today spends your money into the future. What I build today will be be enjoyed by your grand kids. And the price difference between my quality and the factory made pieces from a store is not all that big. Seriously, just ask for a quote!

The Knotty Foreman

Just wanted everyone to have a peek at my shop foreman. His name is Bunky Bear and he keeps things moving in The Knotty Workshop

The Colors of Santa Fe - it's IN the wood!

The furniture I will be selling on the Santa Fe market will be made from a very unique wood. It is common in its species, but very unique in appearance. The trees were injected with a dye prior to harvesting. The result is a very unique colored wood. In the Santa Fe market, finishers expend an incredible amount of time to reach a desired effect that is vibrant and rich in color. A combination of the different colors can be used to achieve the very special look that will set your unique furniture apart from others and boldy proclaim "Santa Fe."


With this unique wood that I have exclusive access to, I can build furniture with the same effect except the color is literally in the wood. Since no piece of wood is the same, the color distribution in this unique wood is erratic and never repeating itself. It comes in a variety of colors and I can create any type of furniture you need. Call me at 303.246.4766 or email bruce@theknottywoodworker.net to discuss your very unique Santa Fe flavored furniture.

Why handmade furniture?

This is a hard question to answer without sounding like a salesman. And, I am, in fact a salesman, also. But, primarily, I am a woodworker, and a knotty one at that. There are many reasons to choose custom, heirloom quality, handmade furniture over "store bought" furniture. And the reason one person chooses to do so may be totally different than another persons reason to buy handmade quality. At the end of the day, however, we have to live within our budget and sometimes this excludes some people from being able to buy a particular item.


The first and foremost advantage to buying furniture from a maker like myself is quality. As with any product, there are quality brands, and there are economy brands. When an item is produced primarily by computerized machines, the propensity for a below standard piece to enter the market is a lot higher.Quality Control is exercised by choosing a sample from several like products in a lot.That one piece may reach company standards. but 3 before it and 1 after it does not. It is not until much further down the road that the weakness is discovered, often times, after it is in the possession of the consumer for some time.
With handmade furniture, at least by The Knotty Woodworker, anyway, inferior aspects are noticed at the time it takes places and corrected right then; a bad joint, a weak board, out of squareness, etc.
This greatly increases the guaranteed quality of your furniture. I will concede that sometimes a flaw may go unnoticed, but the better than average guaranty I offer protects my clients far better than any chain manufacturer's warranty.
Simply put, every aspect of your furniture is deliberated by a critical thinking craftsmen whose name and reputations rides solely on the quality you receive. A satisfied customer may tell a couple of people they know about their experience. A dissatisfied customer will tell EVERYONE they know about their experience. There is no benefit to The Knotty Woodworker for the integrity of each piece I make to be compromised in any way. This is what makes my furniture "heirloom quality." It will be around for your great grand kids to enjoy. Have you ever been frustrated when a dresser drawer fails to operate due to poor quality glide systems? A handmade piece of furniture will offer you more than a lifetime of use.


Probably the next best cited reason that satisfied clients continue to choose handmade furniture over mass produced pieces is dimensions and finish. A custom maker only builds one piece at a time and if you want a desk 32" in height as opposed to the industry standard of 30", it is not an issue. Whereas a mass producer has to alter the flow of production, your specifications dictate the production. For this reason, most customers of handmade furniture are homeowners. There is no worry involved wondering if it will fit in your next apartment. However, a designer that his worth his salt will help the client to consider future needs in regards to the piece being created today. Custom made furniture is tailored to your needs and desires, truly an Expression of yourself.
Along the lines of individual dimensioning, is the ability to have a piece stained and finished to coincide with the overall theme of your home's other woodwork. A mass producer may offer as many as 5 or 6 stains for the same piece. The Knotty Woodworker offers you any stain you wish. With this, you can buy a secondary piece years later and have it match in color and style to previous purchases. The big plants often discontinue a style or stain after a period of time. If you decide two years later that you are ready to purchase bedside tables that match your dresser, you may become very dismayed when revisiting the chain furniture store that sold you the dresser. With this aspect of handmade furniture, you can buy one or just a few pieces at a time to complete the motif of your home.


Yet another advantage to handmade furniture is the uniqueness of your piece. After you and The Knotty Woodworker design your Expression, it will most likely be, and remain, a one-of-a-kind heirloom. This is always the case in my commissioned pieces. I never replicate a custom order. In my freelance ventures, however, the pieces I make that are placed in stores for purchase, I may very well make two or three of the same design. Even at that, however, the uniqueness is very rare. Commercial shops build thousands of the same style and size.Since I am, in effect, building the antiques of tomorrow, this very fact will greatly appreciate the value of your furniture.


Probably the main two reasons that people do not buy handmade furniture are time and expense. We live in a microwave world. Fried chicken? No problem. KFC offers it within 4 minutes of walking through their door. To have it at home, it takes an hour and leaves a mess to contend with. This transfers to our purchasing practices when buying furniture. We can go to a national department store for cheap and fast furniture. If your TV goes out and you have to buy one immediately to catch Sunday's game, you can buy an entertainment center at the same time. Microwave mentality, the give it to me now attitude, definitely causes people to buy manufactured furniture as opposed to handmade. A simple sofa table will take me four days to build and that doesn't account for scheduling. If I have 3 orders ahead of you, that very table can be weeks out.
And then, of course, there is cost. I will not mislead you. Anything I make will cost you more than what you can find in the plethora of stores vying for your business. Although, they are two entirely different products, what I make is initially more expensive. Almost always it is 150% of the cost of machine made items. Sometimes even more.
However, in light of the facts above; quality, size, finish, uniqueness, etc., you are getting far more bang per buck than you are when you purchase run of the factory pieces. A simple thought for you to ponder; How many entertainment centers have you bought? Total up the costs and compare that to one from myself. One from myself that meets your size specifications, functionality ( a drawer exactly where you want it), your stain preference, and the fact that no one has the same piece of furniture, and it is easy to see why you should buy handmade furniture from The Knotty Woodworker.


The lessons put forth above, as I predicted, make me sound like a salesman. And, as I admitted, I have to be a salesman in addition to a furniture maker. Unfortunately, when people realize that the points above are true, it is after they have already spent as much on multiple pieces of the same item as they could have spent for one Expression in Wood by The Knotty Woodworker.


Give me a call and lets discuss your needs, tastes, and budget. You will be amazed at just how affordable my work really is when you view the whole picture. 303.246.4766

Going Blue

The "green" movement is upon us. Whether you buy into the theory of Global Warming or not, I would recommend to any constituent of the Earth to behave in a responsible manner in regards to the bounties that are supplied to us by the Earth. Responsible stewardship is commendable whether or not we are destroying the Earth. I find no fault in anyone attempting to preserve our natural resources, regardless of their motivation or beliefs.
The Knotty Woodworker, being responsible for his use of natural resources, is going "Blue." I am glad you are asking what that means. I will explain it. A trip across Colorado will reveal thousands upon thousands of acres of brown evergreen trees. How can an evergreen be brown, you ask. The Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) is the culprit. It is not a new creature, although it is seeing its heyday right now. The lodge-pole pine trees have been victimized by this critter for ages. Right now, however, its infestation is at pandemic levels. Thousands of acres of our forests are giving up trees to the effects of this insect's activities. The MPB burrows through the bark of a tree and ingests the bark and wood. As it excretes it's food, a fungus starts and thrives in the tree until the tree dies. The result of the fungus is a discoloration, a stain, of blue color embedded in the wood. This kills the tree and then the MPB moves on to another tree until that tree is dead. And then another, then another.




There is much debate as to why the infestation level is so high. Some say a few successive years of warmer than usual winters. Other theories include lower than usual number of wildfires. Regardless of the reason, the result is that acres upon acres of standing evergreens that are now "ever-browns." The impact of the MPB is leaving it's mark in mountainsides with a dead brown canopy of trees. The standing dead trees need to be harvested and used for whatever purpose possible.
To be responsible, we need to take advantage of this influx of lumber rather than let it stand until so weak it falls, and allow it to lay there until it fully decomposes.
The Knotty Woodworker is using this abundant lumber to create heirloom quality furniture. This is the only responsible way I can see to get through this pandemic. The impact on the environment has taken place. All I can do is minimize the impact by utilizing the wood.





So, this is how The Knotty Woodworker is going "green." I am actually going "blue." And rather than spraying the furniture with a solvent based finish such as lacquer or polyurethane, I am going a green step further by applying an all natural, 100% vegetable oil finish. What? Am I using Wesson oil? No, no, and NO!
The finish I am referring to is an oriental practice that goes back over three millenia. Tung Oil. The Chinese have applied tung oil to their woodworking projects for centuries. Tung oil is rendered from the nut of the tung tree. It penetrates the wood as opposed to varnishes and shellacs that sit in top of the wood surface as a sealer and beautifier. Tung oil offers a finish that is impervious to moisture, beautifies the wood and protects it from deterioration, which is the reason lacquer and other solvent based finishes are used.
It takes an incredible amount of time for the tung oil to dry. This is sped up by other tung oil products by mixing it with mineral driers that contain solvent based driers.
The tung oil employed by The Knotty Woodworker is unique in that it contains no mineral driers. It has a drier to speed up the drying process that is all natural itself; 100% Orange Oil (d-Limonene). This provides an all natural, low toxicity finish. As a woodworker, I can't get any "greener" than this. The finished protect is protected and beautified in the most natural way. Here is a raw wood sample and the same piece after application of the 100% organic finish.


Here is a piece of fiddle-back maple in it's natural state.





After the application of all natural tung oil. Another positive of this finish is that it emits an incredible citrus smell that lingers in the wood. A far cry better than the chemical odor of traditional solvent based finishes. Very pleasant.


The Knotty Woodworker can provide you beautiful, heirloom quality furniture with no adverse effect on our environment. Contact me and let's "Go Blue."