Forest to home. Custom furniture harvested and built in the Yukon.
Live Edge Yukon!
For years I have been speculating at what I “could do” with the trees that I’ve seen many times gliding by while out for a run with the dogs. It was only this last Christmas that I realized what I was actually contemplating building. We visited friends in Toronto, a lovely young family of six. One of the conversations that popped up in the busy holiday/reunion chatter was that of the dining table. A thick, dark, 2 piece slab table mounted on 2 square steel box frames. Absolutely beautiful. The conversation moved on, but I kept thinking about that table. Beyond its rustic lustre, it was the centre point of a family. This is where the kids learn to keep their elbows off the table, where they all meet to share each other’s stories from the day, work through hard times and celebrate good ones! This was the motivation that put me into action. I went home, stopped thinking about it, and did it.
About LiveEdgeYukon Products and Accessories
Each piece is an amalgamation of structure and imagination. It has been heartbreaking at times, having to abandon such beautiful pieces of pine because they proved to lack the attributes needed to confidently place dowels or shape joinery. Taking each experience with me searching for the next tree, I’m slowly learning to recognize tell-tale signs on the exterior of the trees that hint to subtle nuances of flaw, to all out, total instability. Utilizing intersecting heartwoods within the tree and the limbs, and placing dowels accordingly to grain direction, significantly increases the strength and stability of the complete structure. Placing a ‘beam’ between two limbs essentially creates a box. Cross-members are rabbeted and doweled to direct force from the edge of the top to the centre of the base. Where the log base doesn’t have the mass to keep the table from tilting over, two intersecting legs are let in.
The combinations of shapes and finishes are unlimited, as each and every piece is uniquely different. If there are certain aspects of different tables that you like, I can combine them together with what the forest has to offer to build what you have in mind. Or, as I have found so far, something entirely new takes shape that I hadn’t foreseen and rivals what I had originally imagined!
The Dogs Play their Part
Whenever it is possible to cut the stock down to a size that will fit in my dog sled, I get the dogs to pull it out. We’ve been a recreational/racing team our whole go of it, and we still have some go left in us! The dogs are getting on, but I like to think that they know that they are actually doing something rather than just running a loop for some exercise. Perhaps a sense of purpose? However, there is a strong notion that they just love running, and would actually prefer the sled empty so they could go faster! Over the years I have gotten a strong sense that they would also prefer the sled musherless, so they could both go faster and do whatever they want! Ultimately, fossil fuels would get the stock out of the bush faster, but I prefer the company of the dogs over the snowmachine, and they smell better too!
Disqus Comments