Tag: woodworking

6 Sculptural Tree Trunk & Log Staircases to Spur Your Imagination

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

tree trunk staircases white pine lonesome dove

Rustic stairs that retain the feel of a living tree act as a sculptural centerpiece, bringing the sense of connection to nature into a building’s interior. While they’re most often found in log cabins, timber frame homes and tree houses, tree trunk and log-based staircases look incredible integrated with all sorts of architectural styles. These 6 examples might just give you some ideas for your next project.

The rugged beauty pictured above can be found in a two-story coastal Eastern White Pine log cabin in Trinity, Texas, which is currently for sale.

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The ‘Signature’ spiral stair by Stairmeister Log Works features a log column with an optional root flare intact at the base for a treehouse-like effect. The company also builds circular and straight-run stairs around rustic tree trunks.

three story log staircase

A 42-foot-tall tree supports the single-stringer stairs on this incredible thee-story log staircase by Bill Miller. “The railings serve as trusses to provide strength and stability to each log tread,” he says. “The railings were all built in place.

log stairs crazy house

Carved right into a single log, this steep staircase at the ‘Crazy House’ in Vietnam probably wouldn’t pass muster with building inspectors in the United States, but it’s an interesting idea.

stacked wood stairs

Built around a pile of stacked logs, this unusual staircase can be found in one of AirBnB’s most popular tree houses.

smith built inc log stair

Smith Built Inc. created this log staircase for a custom home in the South Sound area of Washington State.

Finishing Touches: 7 Inspiring Eastern White Pine Ceiling Ideas

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

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Eastern White Pine proves to be as versatile as your imagination when used as a primary ceiling material, whether you apply an experimental mix of stains, arrange it in unexpected geometric patterns, contrast it with drywall or hang it in an unconventional way. These seven pine ceiling ideas range from the simple and rustic to the modern and complex.

Cloud Effect Ceiling

cloud ceiling

This unique ceiling finish by Historic Flooring, called Cloud9, is a result of blending gray, cream and white paints in rough, rustic layers to mimic the sky on a cloudy day.

Custom Eastern White Pine Frame

custom eastern white pine frame

From Woodhouse Timber Frame Homes comes this gorgeous 3600 square foot timber frame home built in New York, showing a great example of how pine framing contrasts against finished wall and ceiling materials.

Geometric Pine Paneling

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For the Yountville Community Center in California, Siegel & Strain Architects created paneled triangles that stretch up toward a central skylight, filling the interior with natural daylight and creating a visually interesting effect.

Crossed Hammer Beam Trusses

crossed hammer beam

Crossed hammer beam trusses made of Eastern White Pine produce a cathedral-like effect.

Basket Weave Ceiling

Learn about an unusual ‘basket weave’ ceiling featuring Eastern White Pine with Todd Fratzel of Front Steps Media in this exclusive NELMA video.

Slatted Ceiling Embedded with Lights

slatted ceiling

An eco-friendly, affordable cabin in rural New Hampshire made of locally sourced Eastern White Pine gets a fun ‘experimental’ touch in the kitchen, with a system of wooden slats attached to the beams, crossing over the ceiling lights like a screen for a built-in effect.

Modern Minimalist Pine in an Austrian Cottage

EFH Tinner Weinfelden, k_m architektur Bregenz, Fertigstellung 2012

Made primarily of white pine, House Weinfelden by K_m Architektur overlooks the mountains of Austria from its perch on a cliff. The construction of the ceilings is simple and elegant, lending the home a clean and polished look.

The World’s Tiniest Woodworking Tools Are Actually Functional

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

tiny woodworking 1

Barely larger than its creator’s thumbnail, the world’s tiniest cordless drill actually works, producing holes that might have been created by some kind of wood-boring insect rather than a tool. Lance Abernathy of New Zealand managed to 3D print an astonishingly small drill powered by a hearing aid battery, taking about three hours to solder and assemble all the parts. He used a regular-sized cordless drill as reference, taking its measurements and then translating them into millimeters. The result, shown in the video below, is even smaller than the tiny working drill published by Flickr user s8 in 2009 (pictured above.)

But that’s not even where tiny woodworking tools stop. Sometime in the 1990s, a craftsman named Wm. R. Robertson spent over 1,000 hours hand-carving and assembling all of the tiny tools you see in the toolbox below, including the chest itself, which measures two inches and features dovetailed drawers and a working lock.

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Instagram user Marco Terenzi also creates mini woodworking tools, showing off his work on Instagram. Though not quite as small in scale, his saws, presses, joints, drawers, calipers and other miniatures are all functional.

Check out more photos of tiny tools over at Vice.

Can Paper Cut Wood? Find Out in This Crazy Viral Video

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

Paper is thin, flimsy, and all too easy to damage and destroy. But anyone who’s ever gotten a particularly nasty paper cut knows its edge can be dangerous when wielded in just the right way. So what happens when you cut it into a circle and fit it into a circular saw as a replacement for a metal blade? The world’s most painful paper cut, if you’re not careful! Watch in this viral video, viewed over 12 million times, as John Heisz of ‘I Build It’ gives his paper saw a series of materials to tackle.

“This redefines ‘paper cut,’ I guess,” he says. “And while this really doesn’t have any practical applications, it was interesting to do. Even more so, since the paper I used was nothing out of the ordinary – just regular printer paper with no special treatment. Add to that the time of year (it was hot and humid, making the paper fairly limp with moisture), it’s amazing that it worked at all.”

Anyone want to volunteer testing this out with some card stock?

Weekend Project: Build an Inexpensive DIY Pine Lumber Greenhouse

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

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Spring is officially here, according to the calendar – but in most parts of the United States, it’s still a bit too cold to plant many crops directly into the ground. If you need a sunny, insulated space to start some seedlings, a greenhouse is ideal, but you don’t have to build anything complicated or purchase an expensive kit from the hardware store. If you’re relatively handy, you can build a simple, affordable greenhouse out of pine lumber and plastic sheeting.

pine lumber greenhouse

Rob of Bepa’s Garden came up with a nice looking, sturdy design for a pine greenhouse project made of untreated 2”x3” pine lumber and 6ml greenhouse plastic. The structure measures 6’10” by 8’ and cost less than $150 to build, including hardware.

The pine is protected by the plastic, and the structure is large enough for for lots of plants on its two interior shelves, with storage space underneath for tools, soil and other items. A full-sized door is built into the side, and there’s a window opening on the opposite wall to help regulate the interior temperature as it gets warmer.

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Rob reports that his greenhouse has held up remarkably well for its low cost, still doing great after three years of exposure to bitterly cold, snowy Northeast winters. The full plans are available as a download on Etsy for $17.99.

Classic Stunners to Modern Twists: A Gallery of Eastern White Pine Furniture

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

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The versatility of Eastern White Pine really shows when you get to see this sustainable softwood rendered into furniture in a broad range of styles, including classic, traditional, country, rustic and modern. Here’s a sampling of ways in which craftspeople have made the most of Eastern White Pine’s ease of carving, natural knots and markings and other trademark characteristics.

Classic: The Windsor Chair

windsor chair

Originating in England in the 16th century, the Windsor chair is now an American classic, as colonists replaced the British version’s elm seat with Eastern White Pine, which is easier to carve into a comfortable, deep-saddled seat. Thomas Jefferson was said to have sat in a Windsor chair while signing the Declaration of Independence.

Traditional: Custom-Built Farm Tables by A Vintage Wren

classic eastern white pine table

Based in New Hampshire, custom furniture maker A Vintage Wren often uses locally sourced, sustainable Eastern White Pine as the main material in their contemporary wooden creations, like this table.

Country Style: Sadie’s Amish Hutch 

EWP furniture sadie's hutch

Fitting right into farmhouse-style interiors, Sadie’s Hutch is handmade by the Amish with premium-grade Eastern White Pine, available in a variety of paint, stain and antiqued finishes.

Rustic: Benches Made of Eastern White Pine Trunks

eastern white pine trunk benches

So simple, so gorgeous! Artist Virginia Overton created an outdoor installation for the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, including these rustic benches made of solid slabs of Eastern White Pine.

Modern: Handcrafted White Pine Furniture from Spain

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Spanish furniture brand Ventura uses sustainably managed white pine for its gorgeous range of modern wooden furniture, including desks, stools, side tables, cabinets and even a casing for a 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb amp.