Wine Enthusiasts Christmas Gifts…
October 26, 2010
What to get the wine connoisseur or alcoholic wino for Christmas? How about a counter top wine rack?
Gen-u-wine Knot Traditional Woodworks wine racks. Produced from local FAS Kiln Dried Alder lumber. (The Forest Stewardship Council is creating sustainable forests worldwide, producing and certifying sustainable lumber for a growing industry of green builders.) The through tenons in the bread board style tops are made from Oregon Black Walnut logs I have dried and milled.
Further more, I machine parts and hand assemble these wine racks from rips and off cuts, gleaned from the custom upholstered furniture business next door. If I didn’t take it, they would burn it or put in in the dumpster.
I apply three coats of bar top poly-urethane that is stain resistant and virtually water proof. I use a flat sheen so that you can see the natural color of the wood and the grain, not a glossy wet looking finish.
Because my design is modular, I can make four bottle, six bottle and eight bottle racks, that will fit on a counter top or sideboard. I can build them with my miterd tops too… like this four bottle by two shelf model.
Again, Alder hardwood with Oregon Black Walnut for the feature strip in the top.
So many combinations and ways to construct these wine racks. I have some really interesting harwood logs that are drying but not ready to make parts out of yet. I would like to make these from Black Walnut or White Oak eventually too.
If you have some floor space, maybe a unique 36″ tall (counter top height), 20 bottle rack to display your collected wine treasures.
The checker board top for this piece was made from some kind of fruit wood, probably apple, for the light squares and Black Walnut.
These legs were milled from a very heavy, hard, dense, tropical wood that a friend of a friend got for me. He works for a lumber importer that was doing inventory and found these big planks buried under dust and debris for years. When they couldn’t identify the planks, didn’t know where they came from, I fortunately ended up with them.
The bread board ends are Sapele, the through tenons are Australian Lacewood and the shelf racks are Alder.
I cut out three of these racks, but only had enough material for two tops, so someday I will come across some nice lumber and make a different top on legs and shelves like these.
The top for this piece I made from Alder for the light squares and highly figured Balck Walnut for the dark squares.
As much as I try make these in a production fashion, it’s still mostly one offs or two offs like these examples.
I tried to cut boards so that the dark figured grain pattern looks like it runs through lighter squares. My photographs don’t really do it justice.
About the time I get pieces ready to apply a sprayed on finish, I’m already thinking about ways to put the next ones together. There is still time to make some special presents. What is next?