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Would you buy one of these benches? What would you pay? It weighs about 100 pounds has a 2 inch cherry slab as the bench with pine log supports. 6" long 1/4" diameter nails, four on each side, hold it together. It is 6.5 feet wide. It is made for outdoor use say around a fire pit or similar.I have been saving the cherry 8 years and letting it dry. I milled it at my neighbors. I made this one for my neighbor and its pictured by her basement door. I did a minor sanding and then a fairly neutral Sikkens stain. She wanted it very rustic so I did little sanding, especially where the bark was on the edges. I would probably sand the cherry much more on my next ones.
It takes three hours to make one and other than the free wood from my property less than $10 of material.
ET
Edits: 10/17/14 10/17/14Follow Ups:
Not trying to rag on your project but to me it just seems a bit basic. If it were me coming across this let's say at a flea market, I'd figure hell a person could go to Home Depot and get a couple of railroad ties, a few spikes and accomplish the same for practically nothing.Now for those who don't wish to build it (or lack the knowledge) then yes, it's a go. Price wise I couldn't say.
You gotta love the cherry though.
Edits: 10/18/14 10/19/14
No ill feelings it is basic and rustic. That was part of my goal in keeping it cheap. Two friends each offered me $100 for one in addition to the one I made for my friend in the pictures. I'll show a pic of the table soon.
ET
I thought the bark was cool but the next version will be bark free. I'll also use smaller diameter legs that are not larger than the cherry slab. I'll sand the cherry much more too as I said before. These are made cheaply to be very basic outdoor furniture.
I have some other Chestnut-Oak for tables that is larger and at the primary branch point (vee) I'm going to make nice three leg tables with that. I'll show you all a pic of one of those later. I wish I had access to a lathe. My dad actually made a lathe when I was a kid. He made chess sets where the pawns were 8" tall among other things.
And what a surprise the most negative comment came from my good friend tinear, you are to be praised for your consistency!
ET
Don't come in after the fact, chastizing for what they thought. Bad form.
Please! There was more than that in his post. You must not understand our history. My comments have more to do with our whole interaction here than this one post. Bad form? It's not bad form when you ask two questions in a post and neither are answered? Just to remind you here is what I asked:Would you buy one of these benches?
What would you pay?I don't care if someone hates them and my feelings aren't hurt in anyway but just look at his subject line referring to it as "stuff". Then he doubts if "anyone" would buy it. Nobody asked that and he is wrong I have already sold two. I'm really just trying to get an idea of value from many people from many places. Again it wouldn't bother me if someone thought it was crap which surely some will. You missed the point and I won't bother to say what I think of that, I guess it might be construed as bad form.
And for the future you are wasting your time telling me what to do or not to do here or anywhere else. Feel free to continue wasting your time.
ET
Edits: 10/18/14 10/18/14
...build a matching picnic table with those as the seating.
You could sell the set for big bucks.
so one can see the beauty of the wood instead of hiding it with one's fat ass.
Two or three slab side by side and you have the table top...
And there's nothing wrong with that. Maybe think about doing a mortise and tenon joint instead of spikes.
You have to get rid of the bark, if you don't you can't finish properly and the bugs have a place to hide.
You may want to consider whether you're making decorations or building furniture. That may determine your path forward.
All the best, whatever you decide.
I don't care for the trunk legs.
as pictured. It isn't rustic, it's primitive. You could sell the cherry wood slab to a furniture maker. I'd ask a few of them what the material is worth.
primitive rustic is perhaps a better description. Here is a definition of Rustic:
1 of, relating to, or suitable for the country : rural rustic rolling farmland
2
a : made of the rough limbs of trees (rustic furniture)
b : finished by rusticating (a rustic joint in masonry)
3
a : characteristic of or resembling country people
b : lacking in social graces or polish
4
: appropriate to the country (as in plainness or sturdiness)
So rustic works too and is very accurate based on the Webster definition although you seem to disagree. We seldom agree so no surprise there.
ET
Can't find a slab of cherry like that unless you know somebody or grow your own. You invested a lot of time in it. If it wasn't personal, then $500-600.
There's a store in the Belltown section of Seattle selling slab furniture -- big pieces -- for tens of thousands. Finished but still rustic.
Personally, to use a piece of wood like that for "campfires" makes me ill.
I appreciate your high value . For the most part I learned a lot posting the thread and most of what I learned was positive and welcomed.
I invested only three hours. My five acres is in a development where it was logged into the 70's and there is a good bit of what I call sterile cherry (doesn't flower or fruit) This tree died about the time I moved here in 2002. I cut it down when it was dead but still upright and just put it under a tarp under a rooved structure I built. I didn't paraffin the ends or do anything to limit checks/cracks.
Thanks again
ET
Cherry is quite valuable and expensive, especially in a slab that thick, which I think is very rare.
I called around and nobody really wanted it. I guess it isn't that valuable. I thought it was but have been proven wrong and there are a lot of furniture guys within 100 miles. I called ten and even focused more toward DC for higher $$. Also I see letting the wood age on my property no different than an old junk car sitting in someones driveway. Zero effort.
ET
Edits: 10/18/14
please?
For example: Rabbet out a wide channel in the tops of the logs and cut corresponding notches in the plank.There are other things you could do to add some interesting structural detail, but as is, I think it's a bit too "rustic"...
Of course that's a matter of opinion. :-)
I guess I just like to encourage people to refine and improve their designs. Probably because I used to fabricate custom furniture for a living.
BTW that's a pretty nice slab of cherry you've got there.
SF
Edits: 10/17/14 10/17/14
""BTW that's a pretty nice slab of cherry you've got there.""
I have about 12 more. Not willing to throw out a $$ number for the one in the pics? Thanks for the reply.
ET
I think you should rework the design if you intend to sell benches.
If you don't want to do that, then I think you might get up to a hundred bucks a pop... But, I don't know the locale you'd be selling in.
Why not take that beautiful wood and do something more interesting with it?
I mean no disrespect, but what you've done, essentially, is nail a slab of wood to a couple of logs.
SF
""I mean no disrespect, but what you've done, essentially, is nail a slab of wood to a couple of logs."""
Exactly. Sorry but it takes great tools I don't have to do much more than what I have done. I'd be happy selling a few of these at $100-125. Thanks.
ET
Or a crapload of money, either.
Anyway, free.ranger is probably right about the intrinsic value of the cherry planks. If they are tight-grained and uniform, they are worth more by themselves.
Here's a quick and dirty drawing I did of what I was suggesting: Top-down with two different "looks".
There are literally hundreds of variations you could make to this design, and you could make them using relatively inexpensive hand tools. :-)
SF
I know exactly what tools it takes and what they cost. I appreciate and enjoyed your drawing. I guess we need to discuss what a crapload represents to each of us to know for sure but let's not bother with that. All tool donations accepted.
ET
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