Solid Wood Table Tops
We build tabletops of boards and slabs*, not to be confused with veneer or composites.
We do not build tops without bases except for our established patrons.
We have three sources for the wood for our tops:
- our lumber shed
- matched sets
- live edge slabs
Tops from Our Lumber Shed
When we receive lumber and when we are pulling boards for a job, we look for boards of exceptional color, figure, and character. We mark and store them for table tops. When someone orders a table, we select boards from this "special reserve" for their individual beauty and for their coherence in a composition. Often people must be shown the joints, but the heft and expression of individual boards remain.
Because these boards are from different trees, some variation in figure and color is inherent.
Prices for tables on this website are for tables built from our special reserve.
Tops from Matched Sets by Special Order
Lou Irion buys exceptional logs. His company, Irion Lumber, keeps the wood from each log in a set of square edged boards, 10-18" wide, whose color, figure, and character are consistent and extraordinary.
This is an example of a curly cherry set:
The length, width, and thickness of a set determine its suitability for a given design. We can guide you. Click to see the matched sets currently in stock at Irion Lumber.
Tops from Bookmatched Slabs
We have sources for pairs of wide thick slabs with natural edges that are bookmatched. These we can use on our Mitchell Trestle bases or with custom bases.
Definitions
Off the sawmill, a flitch is a cut, flat on two sides, with bark on the edges, commonly called a slab.
To bookmatch is to "open" two flitches or boards that were face to face in the tree and place them side by side.
A set is two or more flitches or boards cut from a tree.