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Honoring the legacy of a family farm through handcrafted heirloom furniture. In early 2018, John and his father, Don, stopped by my studio at the Littlebranch Farm Gallery. In a spring storm, a large white oak had toppled under the storm. They were searching for a furniture maker to craft furniture from the tree.

Don, a 5th generation farmer, passionate about the land and family business, passed in 2019. Before passing away in 2019, Don assigned the task of constructing the furniture to his sons, Sam and John, who possess his energy and passion for the land and family.

In late 2022, Sam and John Halcomb stopped at the Gallery at Littlebranch Farm to meet with Kelly Maxwell Designs to discuss a project. Back in 2018, Kelly suggested having the tree milled into three-inch thick wood slabs. These slabs were subsequently stacked and left to dry naturally. After following my advice, they expressed their interest in building the furniture and asked for guidance on the necessary steps. Recently, Kelly had the opportunity to visit Walnut Grove Farms in Adairville, Kentucky, and personally viewed their collection of air-dried live edge wood slabs.

Handcrafted natural wood furniture

Designing and handcrafting natural wood furniture for clients is an absolute privilege, regardless of the project’s scope. As a self-taught furniture maker, Kelly takes pride in his craft and prioritizes using high-quality air-dried wood to create enduring heirloom pieces. Crafting natural wood furniture is a time-consuming process akin to the art of producing top-notch whiskey.

Kelly has found that using air-dried wood in his projects produces the best results, even though he has previously used kiln-dried wood. However, he has realized that this method requires much time and patience. It can take up to three to five years for most wood species, milled at three inches thick, to dry and stabilize naturally. Additionally, not all wood species are suitable for making furniture slabs, and some may come with their own unique challenges. Crafting natural wood furniture is like making a cherished family whiskey – it’s a process that demands patience and attention to detail.

Handcrafted furniture

The Halcombs wood slabs are a beautiful species of white oak. Kelly decided to book-match two of the slabs together, which was a perfect fit for the tabletop. He also built a custom table base with a shelf for eye appeal and functionality. Discovering the owl’s eyes in the woods was a pleasant surprise. They complement each other perfectly on both the bottom shelf and tabletop. To protect the wood and keep it looking beautiful, He added a natural premium hardwax finish.

There are plenty of places to look for creative and unique real wood furniture on the web today. However, nothing allows you to create something incredible like crafting your unique natural wood furniture.

Essential woodworking tools, such as a drill, saw, and sander, come in all shapes and sizes. While choosing the perfect one can be daunting, we’ve compiled a quick guide to some of the most valuable tools. Whether your interest is traditional or rustic real wood furniture, making this list is a great guild.

Basics of real wood furniture

Whether a DIY or professional woodworker, a sander is a must-have. Options such as belts, random orbital, and hand sanding blocks are all must-haves. At the same time, hand tools such as chisels and squares are essential and significant for woodworking’s fine details. Most importantly, no modern natural wood furniture shop is complete without a joiner, table saw, and thickness planer. One of the standard tool needs but the slightest thought of as a tool is a clamp. Clamps are used in most woodworking projects, thus one of the most important. While these are all great suggestions, the project and woodworking style will dictate the tools needed. Remember, this suggests that the essential toolkit required in a wood shop is just that basic. We have touched on dust control, jigs, and many other tools in woodworking and furniture-making.

Woodworking trade tools

Aside from the items above, you should build your woodworking tool kit based on your woodworking style. The tool is the same whether contemporary, modern or rustic furniture. For instance, a circular saw can help dimension for longer rip cuts. A good table saw is a great option, but a track saw system easily replaces the need for an expensive table saw.
Another option to have handy is a handsaw along with a router. Or use a router along with a straight edge and clamps to cut a straight line. At the same time, not the best way to cut a board, but it is an option. The best use for a router is cutting shapes and cleaning up a wood edge.

If you want to create curved items, then you’re going to need a jigsaw — as well. Some woodwork enthusiasts like to top up their saw collection with a coping saw for complex components. However, you can also get details into your work if you’re willing to have time and patience with a mallet and a few chisels. Hammers, screwdrivers, and other essential tools can be great when expanding your skills.

Other Wood Furniture Extras

For additional “extras” to add to your live edge furniture-making toolkit, you can also think about power drills that you can use to combine pieces of your items. You might need some joinery gadgets, too, if you want to get into that aspect of woodworking. However, it’s worth noting that it does take a lot of time to get used to joinery. If you’ve already developed skills in hand-cutting your joints, then joinery gadgets might make things slower.
Other great tools to invest in might include a small workbench where you can focus on creating your pieces without putting your floor or dining table in danger and a good supply of clamps.

Reclaimed and Salvaged Wood

Here at Littlebranch Farm, our reclaimed wood furniture is crafted using lumber that is cut into live edge wood slabs, used in our natural wood countertops and rustic dining tables, and root and stump bases, used in our rustic vanities, are all reclaimed and salvaged wood. This wood has seen some initial use prior to becoming rustic furniture. Much of this wood has been lying around since before the 1960’s. Some of the wood that we use originated as dead and fallen trees and now have a second life as rustic furniture. We’ve worked hard to responsibly source the wood that we use in crafting our custom rustic furniture.

Responsibly sourcing wood slabs

What does that mean, responsibly sourcing? The ICC defines responsible sourcing as “a voluntary commitment by companies to take into account social and environmental considerations when managing their relationships with suppliers.” We like to think of responsible sourcing as caring about the community that we live in and caring about the consequences of our actions inside of that community.

 Sourcing reclaimed wood

Even though this is obviously not sustainable, many companies in the United States source their materials in this fashion. We do not do this. We have chosen to only use wood that is native to the United States, thereby putting our actions toward building & developing the responsible wood market on our home turf. Can a company care for the community in which it exists, be environmentally responsible, and be successful? We think it can. We see business as a function of the community, as an opportunity for cooperation that can positively affect everyone.

Reclaimed wood furniture

Littlebranch Farm loves working with reclaimed and salvaged wood and being the leading source of rustic furniture in Nashville, TN. Why do we work with live edge wood in our custom reclaimed wood furniture? In addition to the value of community responsibility and environmental consciousness. Salvaged and reclaimed wood is the best material to work with and the best material for achieving our aesthetic goals. The unique qualities of this material are unlike anything else. Each finished piece of rustic furniture is designed and handcrafted with the purpose of celebrating the amazingly unique qualities different in every tree slab, log, root, or stump. We recycle wood from the forest floor and transform it into dining tables, rustic fireplace mantels, rustic vanities, and natural wood countertops for your home.

Salvaged wood

Forest data in the United States shows that “About 30 percent of the 2.3 billion acres of land area (745 million acres) in the U.S. is forest today as compared to about one-half in 1630 (1.0 billion acres). 300 million acres of forest land have been converted to other uses since 1630. Predominantly because of agricultural uses in the East. The forest resources of the U.S. have continued to improve in general condition and quality. Measured by increased average size and volume of trees. This trend has been evident since the 1960s and before. The total forestland acreage has remained stable since 1900.”