Ronin Daiku

Chairs and Table finally meet

I though I might give a little back story to the Monkey Pod Table before the delivery pics of the table and chairs together.

The tree came from the gym across the stream from our house. My neighbor, Mr. Sakamoto would walk his dog to the gym and sit at a picnic table to have coffee most mornings. His little dog would sit up on the table with him. So the story goes that this one particular day, the little dog jumped off the table, ran out on the grass and barked at Larry. Not knowing what was wrong with the dog, he wouldn't come, he walked over to him. At that moment a large limb from the Monkey Pod tree crashed down on the picnic table, The dog no doubt saved his life.

Long story short, it's a Muni property, and they wack down anything that could pose a liability.

I heard chain saws one morning and after some negotiations over coffee and doughnuts I was gifted the log from the County. Actually it was in a bad spot for them. They do not have a crane to remove it as a log. They had intended to cut it to small movable pieces and let it compost in the tall grass......

Yes, sounds entirely crazy. Happens everywhere I am sure.

They were more than happy to give it to someone that would use the wood.

So We hired a crane to pick up the log and bring it my yard, my front yard, where I had a little space to mill it to slabs.

The slabs 4.5 inches thick, 42 to 54 inches wide weighed about 800 or more pounds.

You'll find plenty of surprises inside yard trees, like the ferrule and tines of a three prong fishing spear......

Yup , hit that two times. Spring steel does not cut well with a chain saw....

Anyway, so we slabbed some and milled the rest for dimensional parts of a future table project.

The slabs dried for a few years while I looked for a client to pair with the table.

Great projects come from Great Patrons. People that support you and your endevours, it enables you to grow as a craftsperson. So, Thank you, very much for your continued support,

Great projects take time, time for wood to dry, air dry for 6 more months then another 6 months in a hot house prior to acclimatizing at my shop for a month or two..... then, only then, we can start building the table. I know, some people think this sounds crazy but you can not rush wood, And once again it takes a special patron willing to commit to the schedule. These patrons are rare in today's world of click and ship. For these willing and committed patrons I try to give 150% into any project.

Good work just takes time.

Some pics of the table construction can be found in the last blog post.

Here's a couple random ones......

Po! napping in the shavings.

This bit of edge took most of a day to clean and detail, well worth the time.

Beautiful.

And I finally had a chance for a group shot of the chairs before delivery......

The chairs are all made of Hawaiian Koa with Ohia spindles.

There are a few design influences, G. Nakashima of course. I loved his chair seats and crest rails. Shaved spindles. I wanted my chair to make people feel how I feel when experiencing his work.