Andrew Pitts ~ FurnitureMaker Update 2007 No. 1

I worked with clients for a number of months developing a very unusual work. It is a contemporary dining table with glass panel inserts in the top, in fact the first time I had worked with glass. It uses cherry for the legs and rim, and has a strong "backbone" of a cherry and oak curved laminated beam. Just the glue-up of that backbone took almost every clamp I own, and those of you who have visited the shop know that is a lot! The table occupies a bright, tall ceiling windowed room overlooking a wide creek and was built to reflect the natural surroundings and appear light and airy (although as my wife and I can attest, the table was NOT light in weight when carrying it down the front stairs of the workshop!). Click on the photo to go to the website page and see other pictures.

In another job I was milling a walnut log for a couple who had to remove the tree, as it was in the way of adding onto their house. The tree had sentimental value as grandfather, a waterman, had always left his boots to dry in the crotch of the tree. Well, as I was milling the log I came across a crack filled with red caulk. I was amazed that anyone would try to caulk a crack in a tree, but was eternally glad it was not concrete, which I have seen used to fill holes in trees where limbs had fallen off. As I relayed the story of the caulk to the clients, I was told that grand dad's boot was, in fact, left in the tree many years ago. We surmised that I had discovered the boot, long since healed over and deeply embedded inside the lumber. On closer inspection, we were able to make out the fabric between the plys of rubber making up the boot. That particular piece of lumber will occupy a special place in the furniture we will eventually design and build from that walnut! This is what custom furniture making is all about!

Friends brought me some planks of chestnut and wanted a coffee table made from the wood. I soon learned that the planks had a history. Great grand-dad had used the planks on the farm as a surface to carve up hogs! Imagine what was going through my head thinking of planing down that wood. Pleasantly, though, the wood was beautiful, and not only was there enough for a nice drop leaf coffee table, but I was able to also make a box for storing legal papers and other valuables. Click on the photo to go to the website page and see other pictures.

Although most of my work stays in Virginia, one piece made it half way around the world .... by sea all the way to the Persian Gulf! A friend took command of a U.S. Navy Destroyer, and having been in that situation myself and spending countless hours on the bridge, I knew what was needed was a box in which to keep "stuff" from breaking loose and flying across the bridge in heavy seas. So I designed a box that could be attached to a flat surface near the Captain's chair, but could also be taken elsewhere as desired. The box fits into a shallow oak tray and magnets hold it in place. The tray is attached to the ship with Velcro. At the end of the day (or night), the Captain simple pulls the box off the tray and carries it to the Cabin. What a nice and useful keepsake of command at sea, the pinnacle of a Surface Warfare Naval Officer's career!

Chicacoan Oak

Perhaps the most unusual work I've done lately is the design, production and installation of the Chicacoan Oak Memorial at Rice's Hotel/Hughlett's Tavern in Heathsville. In taking on this project, I became part museum historian as I researched the history of the tree. The Chicacoan Oak was a white oak tree that stood along Route 360 adjacent the parking lot of what is now the Subway/Buoy in Heathsville, next to the old Northumberland Echo building. The tree was planted around 1692, we believe as a marker between the properties of two prominent citizens. Over the centuries the Chicacoan Oak marked the center of Heathsville and the intersection of the routes from Lancaster, Lottsburg and Burgess. It also provided shade for a blacksmith shop and a place to tie up the horses for over one hundred years. In 1985 the tree fell across Route 360 (fortunately it was just past midnight and traffic was light), and was promptly preserved in the form of a 9 inch thick disk, 5-1/2 feet in diameter. Fast forward to last winter when my fellow Tavern Rangers helped me retrieve the 700 pound slab and wrestle it into our new Transportation Museum, placing it on a rest formed from pieces of the old oak. Following that 10 Rolaids day I developed the information placards, complete with historical photographs, to tell the Chicacoan Oak story. If you can get by Rice's Hotel/Hughlett's Tavern (behind the old courthouse in Heathsville) to see the exhibit, it will be worth your effort, but don't hurry -- nobody is about to move the slab, again, and it will be there in another hundred years. In the mean time, a photograph will have to suffice! By the way, this was my first attempt at carving letters with a chisel, particularly in 300 year old oak. I think the carving went very well and I did not cut myself even once.

That's about it for now. Again, I hope you enjoyed the update. Feel free to forward this to friends and relatives you think might be interested in hand crafted Northern Neck furniture. Stop by the workshop to chat if you are in the area, and see what is new in my world, or just to smell the sawdust! Oh, and be sure to visit the website often to see the new work as it develops. On the remote chance that you don't want to receive my next update, just reply to this and ask me to remove your address.

Best regards,
Andy Pitts

Andrew Pitts - FurnitureMaker

Workshop Update 2007 No. 1