A Kitchen from Guitar Scrap?

We had made some doors for a client outside of New York City. Some for his house and then a few for a cabin in the North. Then he contacted me a year later with an intriguing project - a kitchen. We do not often do kitchens since it is such a competitive field, and one has to know appliances, electrical, plumbing and more. We are experts, but not at those things. The client said he could probably supply all the wood, and he had been saving it for a few years. I was thinking how I would turn down otherwise good work without insulting a good client, when he mentioned Rosewood.

Rosewood is probably the most prized hardwood for finish work. Brazilian Rosewood was used to make the finest furniture in the world for generations. Particularly popular with Europeans during the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods, its popularity contributed to its demise. By the middle of the 20th Century, it was mostly cut for the furniture trade, or destroyed when the forests where it grew were cut for agriculture

East Indian Rosewood was by then becoming a close second to the Brazilian since it had the same strong dark lines and fine grain. While not as dramatic as the South American relative, the Indonesian species was a bit easier on the eye in larger quantities.

“What kind of Rosewood?” with curiosity building. East Indian was the response. Sensing my interest, he explained further. In the 1990’s the client found himself living next door to a retired fellow that had a huge stash of partial logs, boards, planks, and what seemed to be scrap. An amateur woodworker, the client asked about it. The neighbor explained it was offcuts and rejects from his old employer, an instrument maker in Eastern Pennsylvania - the C F Martin Guitar Company. They are the world renowned maker of the best guitars on the planet.

The neighbor was a sawyer for Martin for most of his working life. A sawyer beyond running a large sawmill, often is charged with making critical decisions about the logs that come before him. He has to judge how to saw the log for the best yield of the best lumber. With Rosewood, inclusions of silica could stop his saw and do a lot of damage if he doesn’t spot it first. As the East Indian Rosewood became harder to find, he had to be that much more careful to get the best yields.

With wood being wood, there was waste - scrap wood that would pile up and be in the way. It has little value to his employers, so they would let him haul it off for most of the time he worked there. To look at the pile, one would only think firewood. That was my thought looking at the photos sent to me. Be polite I thought, no sense questioning my client’s sanity. We talked - does he have plans for the kitchen? How much wood is there? What if there is only enough to do 50%, 70% or even 90% of the project? Where do we go to get more East Indian Rosewood?

The plans drew me in. A subtle Arts and Crafts design, one I knew I would enjoy and the client encouraged me to add my touch as I saw fit. we took the next step, and he shipped the wood to us. We were skeptical at first look, then a nervous laugh, then some picking around. After a good look, I told him the only problems I could see were the wood was too thin (could be glued for thickness, though), too narrow (could be glued for width) and too short (could be glued for length). Labor figures would be impossible to know beforehand, so our part would have to be cost plus. I did doubt there was enough wood for a kitchen. A quick survey determined there was enough for face frame cabinets with the Rosewood going to the face frames, the door frames and drawer fronts, as well as moldings. We can buy the veneer from our favorite veneer vendor, and that would b e used to make the panels throughout the job. Both flat and curved?

Did I mention that the cabinetry had several curved elements that required curved in plan cabinet doors and the like? This added dimension sucked me right in, and the next thing I knew, we were exchanging drawings as each part of the kitchen came together on paper.

The building required a lot of planning and trying to find the best use, the best yield for each piece. We used pine or poplar cores to make up for the lack of Rosewood, with 1/8”thick Rosewood wrapping all the surfaces. Finished products looked fine and were a joy to handle and sand. Venneer was brought in to match grains and then seam, press and sand, to make the panels for the doors. As per our usual, we made the boxes first, then the fronts, then the details. We all noted the ease of working the E. I. R. and how it cut, sanded and joined.

Months later (lots of labor!), we had the bulk of the Kitchen built. The Maple tops were made for the two islands, and templates made for the stone elsewhere. The work paid paid off in that it was a stunning room of cabinets. I have not seen the finished work installed. I know I am missing a real treat because the purple hue of the East Indian Rosewood we used turns to a mellow brown in time. We have used it on other, smaller jobs, and it is a wonderful color. A wonderful wood.