The Wood's Path - From Raw Slab to Refined Legacy
Before a Woodslabs piece becomes the heart of your home, it undergoes a transformative journey of patience and precision. It begins with careful air drying to gently reduce moisture, followed by kiln drying for ultimate stability.
The slab is then flattened to reveal a perfect canvas, shaped and sanded to honour its organic contours, and finally, finishing seals its story with a protective, enhancing layer. Each stage is guided by our hands to ensure the wood's natural history is preserved for its future as your heirloom.
Air Drying
Our patient, natural drying process allows each live-edge slab to mature at its own pace, preventing stress and preserving its inherent strength. This commitment to time-honored methods ensures exceptional stability while protecting the wood’s unique narrative—expressed through its rich grain, texture, and organic contours.
The result is a foundation built to last: a solid wood canvas that retains its authentic soul, ready to be transformed into your legacy table, countertop, or heirloom piece.
Kiln Drying
Following years of air drying, each slab enters our vacuum kiln, a crucial step to achieve perfect equilibrium. Using gentle heat and controlled pressure, this advanced process coaxes moisture out evenly, eliminating internal stress to prevent warping and secure lifelong stability.
This meticulous method goes beyond conventional drying; it enhances the wood’s inherent strength, deepens its rich, natural colour, and preserves the clarity of every grain. The result is a perfectly conditioned slab, guaranteed for exceptional durability and ready to become your enduring table, countertop, or custom heirloom.
Flattening
Once dried, each slab’s character emerges, often with gentle shifts that create uneven surfaces. We embrace this natural movement, using advanced heat-pressing technology to carefully coax the wood back to a level plane without sacrificing its original depth.
This approach stands apart from traditional planing, which removes precious material. Instead, we preserve the slab’s full substance and organic form, resulting in a thicker, more stable canvas that retains its inherent strength and narrative.
The outcome is a foundation built for generations, a solid wood slab with character, ready to become a timeless table, countertop, or signature statement in your space.
Shaping and Sanding
This is where your wood slab’s story is refined by hand. After years of natural maturation, our artisans begin a dialogue with the wood, carefully shaping, inlaying, and sanding to elevate its unique character while ensuring enduring resilience.
From traditional bowtie keys to fluid epoxy fills, every intervention is performed with intention. These techniques honour the wood’s organic narrative while securing its structure for generations. The result is a finished piece of exceptional stability and timeless beauty, ready to become your custom table, desk, or living heirloom.
Finishing
We apply Saicos Hardwax Oil in stages; sanding at 240, 400, and 600 grit, to build an exceptionally smooth, deeply protective finish. This layered process allows the oil to fully penetrate, enriching the wood’s natural colour and elevating every contour of the grain.
The result is a surface that feels as luxurious as it looks, silky, resilient, and easy to maintain. A finish designed not only to protect, but to reveal the soul of the wood, perfect for your live-edge table, countertop, or custom furniture.
Woodslabs Associates
