Turning Kyle's Lumber into Furniture

[Matt Furjanic]

Got a bunch of Red River Birch from Kyle a few weeks ago, and transformed it into this. Actually just the chairs, finished today. I made the table about 25 years ago! Wife just had to have patience 'till I got around to the chairs... Thanks, Kyle, the birch is awesome! Matt...

 

[froglips]

Beautiful job! Those look fantastic!

So what you got planned for the next 25 years

Jim

 

[Dragon]

Nice looking chairs and the table ain't too shabby neither. I've always liked to look and grain patterns of River Birch.

 

[TracyP]

WOW!!! Fantastic work.

 

[Kyle]

Awesome work as usual Matt.

 

[Trent Mason]

Beautiful work Matt! :eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap

 

[Joe Scharle]

Another nice job!

 

[jhreed]

I have always been afraid to tackle a chair. Yours are wonderful. Did you do the upholstery work, it is excellent also.
James

 

[Canuck]

Great work with the color and grain match between table and new chairs.

I haven't seen solid birch used in many projects. Sure is pretty stuff!

Wayne

 

[Matt Furjanic]

Thank You for all the cudos...

Well, James, I was also afraid to tackle chairs, mostly because of all the mortises... until I bought a Festool Domino joiner - which is a loose-tenon jointing machine. This is like cheating when making chairs. The domino is very expensive (about $800.00) but makes tenoning easy and very accurate, and is useful for making easy mortises and tenons in other furniture as well.
I was trying to find someone to do the upholstery work, but decided to try it myself instead. I got some high-density foam, and bought a whole side of dark-brown leather for $125 which is enough to do about 20 chairs! A matter of just stretching the leather tightly over the plywood-covered foam, and stapling it. It was a lot easier than the wood work.
Matt...

 

[MIKE NOAH]

Nice Job Matt :eusa_clap

 

[Larry Rose]

Beautiful work Matt, but where is the stringing and banding?:gar-La; How is that birch to work with I've never used any?

 

[Mt. Gomer]

Awesome. The chairs are just beautiful!!!

Travis

 

[Matt Furjanic]

LOL, no inlays in this job. The birch works easily. not as hard as oak or maple and not splintery like oak. Its a pleasure to work with. One thing though: if you stain the stuff, it needs a pre-stain conditioner or it will blotch.

 

[sapwood]

Beautiful!
Always wondered what delights Birch held . . . now I know :icon_thum

Roger

 

[Bob Carreiro]

Great project for the birch! 30 years ago, I used birch a lot as a cabinet maker in Massachusetts. It was sort of the hardwood of choice (there and then). The last 30 years I spent in WA state and birch was hardly seen and never mentioned.

Your project came out well, Matt. What's the next one? Are legs glued up stuff, or solid (hard to tell from pic). I've been on the softwood trail for some time now with a renewed interest in knotty pine. But the time will come for hard stuff. Now that I've seen this old buddy, it may be sooner than later! Don't cha just love woodwork'n?

 

[richlife]

Really nice, Matt! Birch can be great to work with. Rich