The great thing about looking for a retailer or manufacturer of
rustic log furniture is there are plenty of sellers out there
these days, especially with the age of the world wide web. Since
the birth of the internet everyone and there brother seem to
have tried to start making and selling all types of rustic
furniture online, but what I am sure that they found out is that
making log furniture the right way is a hard task to achieve.
Now don't take me the wrong way there are some great builders of
this style of furniture and you will notice they are the
craftsmen that have been around for a while. So knowing this let
me tell you how to make the right decision on choosing your
rustic furniture.
One of the first things you need to decide is the species of
wood you would like to go with, there are dozens of them out
there, but only a couple of good species that will stand up to
the elements outside. There is hickory, cypress , pine(not
recommended), aromatic cedar, eastern white cedar, Northern
white cedar etc. As for the species I mentioned I can tell a
little about each, hickory is a nice species but I noticed the
furniture I see made is that the diameter of the wood is always
small and I get a little suspicious of the strength of it.
Cypress, has hardly no grain that I see compared to the rest.
Pine is absolutely not for me, it is sappy and soft and it is
not very durable. Aromatic cedar is a beautiful wood but when it
weathers if turns dark in the elements untreated. Eastern white
cedar people will say it is the same as Northern white cedar,
but let me tell you its not, I know from working with it. The
wood is really knotty and hairy compared to Northern white
cedar. The looks are similar in color and the aging process is
the same. As for Northern white cedar it weathers to a beautiful
silvery gray if untreated and exposed to the elements. Northern
white cedar can with stand the elements for years, some say that
it will last for 50 years outside untreated, but I can tell you
by experience that it really only last for 20 years. White cedar
is not sappy at all, making it easier to stain or varnish unlike
other species, like pine that will actually have the sap come
out years later, right through the paint or varnish that was on
there.
Once you decided the species the next thing to do is find the
retailer out there selling the log furniture with that wood.
When you locate this seller, keep in mind that if that seller is
just a middleman, you will not get the service you will get from
the actual manufacturer. More than likely, if that person is not
the manufacturer and is just a website owner or guru, it is
probably just a drop ship situation and they will surely tell
you they can get you the furniture right away, when they have no
idea of the inventory or how busy the manufacturer really is
(don't be fooled with factory direct, sales pitches). Second,
just how much can that person really know about rustic log
furniture if they are just an order taker. Dealing with the
person who is actually handcrafting your furniture and can tell
you exactly when it will be done, is by far a more reliable way
to purchase your furniture. Trust me, there are more websites
out there selling log furniture then there are manufacturers of
it.
Now we can get to the construction of the log furniture. Some
log furniture is sanded smooth, some are skipped peeled, some
have the bark on and some are completely peeled. As for which
one is better, I can only tell you what I think. The sanded log
furniture definitely takes away from the rustic feel, skipped
peel is a nice look, but I wonder about the smoothness of the
wood with just a peel on parts of the log. The furniture with
the bark left on definitely has to have some sort of finish on
it to keep the bark on, and sometimes I have seen where the bark
will peel off over time. Completely peeled log furniture is
smooth with out splinters and can easily be treated and has the
true rustic look and feel. Getting past that you should then
take note of how the log furniture is actually connected
together. Some furniture is just butted up together and is
nailed, I do not recommend that style of construction. Most have
a mortise and tenon connection, which is extremely durable.
Things to watch out for with this is the size of the dowels,
some out there will go with a smaller diameter dowel meaning
their logs are usually smaller too. I recommend asking the
diameter and make sure it is at least 1.25", since that is the
weakest point of the furniture. The diameter of the logs should
be no less than 3" as far as I am concerned. Most of the rustic
log furniture I see on the internet does not meet that size on a
good percentage of there lines of furniture, even though it
looks large in the pictures I would definitely ask the sizes of
the logs to get a good comparison from one builder to the next.
The hardware that is used on the log furniture is a big factor
also, because if you are going to have your furniture exposed to
the rain and snow or what ever you don't want the hardware
starting to bleed or rust, all the hardware should be zinc
coated on all parts of the furniture. This is one of the many
ways that some of the manufacturers and garage builders cheapen
the quality of the furniture. Another thing to look for in the
hardware part of it is whether they nail or screw the furniture
together, screws are the better way to go than nails, but nails
that are hot dipped in glue are just as good as screws. The
nails without the glue coating will actually start to back out
over time due to the fibers of the wood pushing on them. If you
take a closer look at the pictures and ask some of these
questions you will get two things out of it, 1. You will find
the better quality log furniture and 2. You will find out if
that person who is selling you the furniture really truly knows
anything about rustic furniture. Other than construction or
species the only thing I can tell you about looking for a
quality piece of rustic furniture is that you should take a
closer look at the company you are dealing with. Building rustic
furniture is not like building a square table that can be pre
cut to length and then put together on an assembly line. Rustic
furniture needs plenty of design work, custom fitting, lots of
judgmental decisions being made do to the differences of the
sizes of stock, and craftsmanship that you do not get from the
builders that have 75 employees, there is now way that all the
employees have these kind of skills or patience or pride, they
are on an assembly line slapping the pieces together and getting
the furniture out the door to you, plus they have the big money
to market the product and get the exposure to be seen by the
public. Notice while your looking on the Internet or anywhere
else that there are plenty of sites or stores with the same
manufacturers, these are the big companies. Getting your rustic
furniture from a small company that has been in business for at
least 10 years and takes pride in every hand fitted piece, will
give you all the things you need to get a quality piece of
rustic furniture that will last for a long time to come.
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