Imagine the impact of a spectacular 6 foot flame-figure within a beautiful walnut flitch!  For this Item of the Month we paired the wide flitch extravaganza with a set of fiddle back walnut.  Perfect compliments for a one of a kind creation.  

 

   

Don't forget - for your smaller volume wood needs look no farther than HORIZON's eShop.  We offer some great selections - just what you might be looking for to finish off that special project.  Simple direct order format makes wood shopping easy! Check it out........

Below is an insider's look at the email that conveyed  Dan's inspiration for this competition. (You may detect a hint of some bizarre brotherly love.)  The details are within.  Go ahead, give it a shot.  Pete needs your help!

The wood business has been

slowly and subtly undermined in increasing amounts over the years. Environmental concerns; some real, some imagined, have created havoc in the industry, but the decline in reputation goes way beyond that. Today's reality  TV logging shows portray loggers as just a tad shy of total idiots in their race against time, the elements, and their constantly breaking equipment while they attempt to harvest the forests. This is not an image that we serious members of the industry view with any sense of pride or understanding.  The northwest was one of the first areas of our country that really felt the impact of the demise.  ( Take a look at an opinion ...an excerpt from our very first newsletter, written by a proud-of-his work logger)

 

I think I know a little about our industry and a lot about the part of the country referenced in the above link.  I have a cabin in the area of NW Montana where the endless mountains and acres of pines were at one time supporting a healthy timber industry.   continued... 

 

In slab furniture, the solid wood slab takes center stage.  On display is the beauty that nature has offered us; forms such as  swirling grain, figure, knots, mass, and rich colors.  And along with natures' treasures there may be a touch of human presence. Embedded in a natural scene, we find long hidden metal elements in some

Super Sycamore - fascinating color, great grain Click on the photo for a link to HORIZON's slab gallery

of these slabs that speak of a time gone by.  As the tree takes that human element as its own, its annual rings fold and wrap around the nail or chain or horseshoe to create another interesting internal grain swirl, only to be discovered when the tree is opened up. 

 

The artisans who create the furniture using large slabs have their own set of challenges to overcome.  While a reproduction furniture builder may fret over intricate joinery, the slab furniture builder  ....cont'd.  please click  to learn more, and to access HORIZON's new slab gallery....loaded with photos!