Last year BUILD LLC opened the Special Projects Division cabinet shop and since then we’ve had our heads down working away. The shop has been so busy with cabinets lately that we entirely forgot to launch the furniture line on the BUILDblog, so here goes. As most architects can attest, designing up furniture is a tremendous amount of fun with plenty of mini design decisions to sink our teeth into. Good design combined with the skills of our master-woodworker David Hentzel, and we’re producing some pieces that we think you’ll enjoy getting your eyes on.
SPD’s “Kerf Series” furniture line incorporates solid wood with a custom metal joint. The “Ethan Scoop Bench” below uses solid cherry with brushed aluminum kerf plates and connection dowels.
We make it in several flavors including the walnut shown below, quarter-sawn oak, paduak and bamboo. It’s also available without the scoop.
The “Aidan” folded-plane tapered chair uses a similar brushed aluminum kerf and dowel connection to make the chair strong and practical.
We’re also developing a line of dining room tables, more about this some other time…
And last but not least, the most important piece of furniture around the BUILD world headquarters, the Sideboard mobile bar. Designed to saddle up to a dining room table it’s also quite practical as a stand alone unit. We’ve been field testing ours for several months now and it hasn’t let us down yet.
For more information and prices go check out the SPD website.
very niiiiiiiiice……
Love it all, especially the bar on wheels and the bench with the sitz mark. Jean
did you guys fabricate the metal dowels and kerf plates in house?
do the dowels have a ‘self-tapping’ aspect, or are they heated and then inserted into the holes, letting friction hold it in place as they expand?
That chair is HOT!
To Mike, nice question! Yes all parts are machined inhouse. The 1/4″ kerf plate is 1″ deep and glued in using a two part epoxy. The 4″ deep hole for the aluminum dowel is drilled thru both the wood and kerf at the same time. Epoxy is added to the hole prior to setting the dowel. The idea came from an ancient type of joint called a locked spline or japanese keyed spline used to join two pieces of wood without glue.
do you guys have any aspirations to do the dowels sans epoxy? this would seem to be more in-line with the japanese ethos!
what is the reasoning for a full mitred corner on the table instead of a t&g or dado? i know it looks cleaner, but is the mitre as structurally sound as the other two?
To Mike, any dowel over time likes to work it’s way out, the epoxy in the walls of the hole lock it in. It also allows me to rub some dust from the sander into any gap between the dowel and the hole while the epoxy is still wet for perfect looking joint. As to the miter, either the dado or a t&g would have been a better choice if we weren’t using the kerf. A finger joint or my favorite the dovetail would have been even better for the simple wood to wood joiniery. I have a super sweet dovetail jig just sitting on the shelf collecting dust, I didn’t know until after I moved up here two years ago that the modernests had banded all use of exposed joinery. But do not fear Mike, I have a secret plan bring back the endangered dovetail.
Anyway what the kerf does for us is to transfer the pressure on the joint away from the glue line and deeper into the two pieces of wood. I’m just shy of 270lbs, I have stood on the back of one of these chairs without any problems. Come by the shop and I’ll show you some, we can even get the dovetail jig down and play with it!
I love the scooped seat in the Ethan Scoop Chair. As someone who spent many years scooping windsor chair seats, I really appreciate your eagerness to slip in some curves and exposed joinery. When I moved here I too was taken aback by the lack of love for the curvy shapes!
Thanks Partick! I too spent many years scooping out Windsor chair seats for my grandad. Being from the Midwest I agree with you about the area being curveless, maybe it’s the rain or coffee. If you want to see some nice curves check out my older work on the SPD website.
David’s personal work can be found here
That is a rockin’ chair.