I'm just getting started on an exciting project, a live edge maple slab dining table for a couple from Winnipeg, Manitoba. They found me through CustomMade.com! My first success there to date.
The story of these slabs goes back quite a way, when I lived in rural Wisconsin and was stumbling across huge logs in need of rescue. I came across this Maple during my weekly trip to the Milltown Library. This HUGE log was lying in the front yard of this farm, right next to the driveway. I saw it again the following week, and again and again for several weeks. One day as I passed by, there was a woman out in the yard. I had to stop and inquire about its fate. When I asked her what was going to happen to it, she responded "I think my husband's going to burn it." So I told her I was a woodworker, and I could save him the trouble of bucking up that log-and make some beautiful things out of it. I left my card, and her husband called and said I could take it.
I wasn't quite sure what I had got myself into, but I was excited to be in it. My neighbor Nick Szenay had a sawmill, a horse truck, and a tandem axle gooseneck trailer with a winch on it-and he was willing to help...and being an engineer type was the perfect guy to have around. We had to make one cut with a chainsaw first, it took about 20 minutes to get through. Did I mention this log was big? The butt end was about 42" across, and it was 12 feet or so to the first limb. We ended up rolling the log up the ramp of the trailer Egyptian style with the winch and straps. We asked a lot of that winch, I'm sure that log weighed easily two tons. These two slabs, 28" wide by 130" long must weigh 200 lbs. or more each.
The adventure continued when the tractor couldn't lift the log off the trailer. We had to roll it back down. Then it was too big for the sawmill. We resorted to a slight modification of the structure of the mill to eek out a few more inches of capacity, and still we had to rip some off one side of the log. Then I broke the leaf springs of my truck with all those slabs in the back on the return trip from the kiln. In hindsight, I should have air dried them since it has taken me seven years to get to them! I am glad I have the opportunity to do it now. It should be fun!
