Gord Graff
05-15-2004, 6:48 PM
Hello All,
I got a called from Peter, a friend of mine last fall asking me if I was interested in some Oak that had been a red wine cask for a few years until it was rendered useless by some unthinking employee who had filled it with white wine by mistake.
As the story goes, the cask, now useless to the wine industry was taken apart and shipped to Peter’s uncle’s cottage with the thought of having it milled for paneling. There it sat for decades, sent out on three separate occasions for milling only to have it returned “unmillable”. Long story short, Peter shows up here one day with a van load of this stuff and at first glance one would wonder what you might be getting into. One glance at this stuff with it’s deep surface checks and red wine stain would leave you scratching your head until……………………….you open it up. There to my delight was the beauty of old growth white oak staring back at me. I stickered the material and eagerly waited until the day that it hit 7% moisture content and then it was an experience that I’ll never forget.
The material was difficult to say the least, it would split in places that you wouldn’t expect and some of it was just plain brittle. Resawing was a two day chore but a pleasure to enter the shop as the smell of wine filled the air. The construction of the pieces was routine but I felt a strong connection to the fellow that was brought in from Italy to produce the cask originally all those decades ago. My hands and tools working the same material that this fellow worked over all those years ago, freaky to say the least but the most enjoyable woodworking experience to date. The material was all 1 ½” thick and between 3” and 6” in width but even with the deep checks and red wine stains it still yielded clear wood that was a solid 1” thick. The majority of the material was rift cut and there was very little quarter sawn but that mattered not to me. A coat of Goudey’s San Miguel Oak stain and four coats of oil based poly completed the look I wanted.
The complete history of the material, the generosity of Peter and my involvement will be forever attached to these pieces by way of laminating the story under a Lexan plate on the underside of the coffee table’s lower shelf. They won’t soon forget the origin and subsequent rebirth of this material and the men whose hands and hearts touched this material. Thanks Peter.
All the best
Gord
"<img src=http://www.woodshopphotos.com/albums/album72/1_Oak_Before.jpg>'
"<img src=http://www.woodshopphotos.com/albums/album72/2_Table_construction.jpg>"
"<img src=http://www.woodshopphotos.com/albums/album72/3_End_Table.jpg>"
"<img src=http://www.woodshopphotos.com/albums/album72/4_Coffee_Table_1.jpg>"
"<img src=http://www.woodshopphotos.com/albums/album72/5_Coffee_Table_2.jpg>"
I got a called from Peter, a friend of mine last fall asking me if I was interested in some Oak that had been a red wine cask for a few years until it was rendered useless by some unthinking employee who had filled it with white wine by mistake.
As the story goes, the cask, now useless to the wine industry was taken apart and shipped to Peter’s uncle’s cottage with the thought of having it milled for paneling. There it sat for decades, sent out on three separate occasions for milling only to have it returned “unmillable”. Long story short, Peter shows up here one day with a van load of this stuff and at first glance one would wonder what you might be getting into. One glance at this stuff with it’s deep surface checks and red wine stain would leave you scratching your head until……………………….you open it up. There to my delight was the beauty of old growth white oak staring back at me. I stickered the material and eagerly waited until the day that it hit 7% moisture content and then it was an experience that I’ll never forget.
The material was difficult to say the least, it would split in places that you wouldn’t expect and some of it was just plain brittle. Resawing was a two day chore but a pleasure to enter the shop as the smell of wine filled the air. The construction of the pieces was routine but I felt a strong connection to the fellow that was brought in from Italy to produce the cask originally all those decades ago. My hands and tools working the same material that this fellow worked over all those years ago, freaky to say the least but the most enjoyable woodworking experience to date. The material was all 1 ½” thick and between 3” and 6” in width but even with the deep checks and red wine stains it still yielded clear wood that was a solid 1” thick. The majority of the material was rift cut and there was very little quarter sawn but that mattered not to me. A coat of Goudey’s San Miguel Oak stain and four coats of oil based poly completed the look I wanted.
The complete history of the material, the generosity of Peter and my involvement will be forever attached to these pieces by way of laminating the story under a Lexan plate on the underside of the coffee table’s lower shelf. They won’t soon forget the origin and subsequent rebirth of this material and the men whose hands and hearts touched this material. Thanks Peter.
All the best
Gord
"<img src=http://www.woodshopphotos.com/albums/album72/1_Oak_Before.jpg>'
"<img src=http://www.woodshopphotos.com/albums/album72/2_Table_construction.jpg>"
"<img src=http://www.woodshopphotos.com/albums/album72/3_End_Table.jpg>"
"<img src=http://www.woodshopphotos.com/albums/album72/4_Coffee_Table_1.jpg>"
"<img src=http://www.woodshopphotos.com/albums/album72/5_Coffee_Table_2.jpg>"