Live Edge Furniture | Slab Wood Furniture | Brick Mill Craft Furniture

Are you looking for custom furniture that will bring a WOW factor to your home or office? Live edge furniture creates show-stopping furniture and are extremely popular in home design. Our slab furniture can complement home design styles including modern, industrial, rustic, or Scandinavian decor. At Brick Mill Furniture, we offer various handcrafted Live Edge Furniture - including live edge desks, live edge tables, live edge shelves and more. Handcrafted in Williamsport, PA.

Who is Brick Mill Co.?

Brick Mill Co. is a family-owned business located in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. We are passionate about creating handcrafted heirloom-quality furniture that can be passed on from generation to generation.

We sell custom live edge benches, sofa tables, desks, benches, shelves, console tables, and live edge dining tables, as well as craft wood furniture and solid wood tables. At Brick Mill Co., we carefully oversee our products every step of the way, from the initial slab of unfinished wood to finishing your Live Edge furniture with our 0% VOC plant-based finish.

What is a Live Edge Table?

The term ‘live edge’ defines that natural edge left on one or more sides of a piece of wood. Instead of the clean, sharp lines seen in conventional furniture, live edge retains the tree’s natural beauty. Cracks, knots, and other natural characters of the wood are usually left as they are to become alluring features of live edge tables, such as the Walnut Console table.

With a live edge design, you can bring the beauty of the great outdoors into your home or office in the form of modern, functional furniture. Handcrafted by woodworkers who have dedicated years to the skill, live edge tables are finished, cut, and sanded by hand to fine works of art. Each live edge table is a unique, exquisite piece. There are many options when it comes to selecting the colors (walnut, for instance), woodcut, and species (for example, a bar table).

What to Look For In a Live Edge Table

When it’s time to shop for your new masterpiece, taking your pick from the vast assortment of options can be daunting. We’ve rounded up a few of the most common features you’ll stumble upon.

1. Woodcuts

• Slab: With a live edge on both sides, a wood slab is usually cut lengthwise from the tree. As a result of the length, slabs are the go-to option for dining room and coffee tables.
  
  
• Slices: These have a live edge, round, beautifully displaying the tree growth rings. Also known as a tree round, a wood slice is usually cut horizontally from the tree and is popularly used for side tables.

2. Burl

It’s unarguably one of the priciest options. Stemming from a unique deformity known as a burl, some trees have large, rounded outgrowth. The exquisite bumpy edges and grainy patterns make burl wood expensive.

3. Features

• Bowties: Also called butterflies, bowties are inlaid pieces of wood across the cracks in tabletops. They curb the cracks from widening while infusing another alluring element to the finished pieces.
  
  
• No Bark vs. Bark: Depending on the type of wood and table used, the craftsman will decide whether to take off the bark or leave it. The removal of the bark and the edges being sanded down lightly is relatively more common.

Four Things You Should Know Before Buying a Live Edge Table

If you are considering adding a live edge table to your home or office, here are the four things you should know before you invest in a piece.

1. Dried Wood Kiln

The necessity of ideal wood drying is greater for a large live edge slab compared to other types of wood. Concurrently, it’s typically one of the most overlooked aspects by people shopping for live edge tables. A plethora of manufacturers of wood and sawmills (except Brick Mill Furniture) only see dollar signs and dive right into slab production without a kiln to efficiently dry live edge slabs.

Those with kilns look more to the dollar than the consumers and don’t take the time required to properly dry slabs. Before hastily selecting the first product that catches your eye, it’s important to conduct your due diligence. Learn about the necessity of kiln-dried edge lumber before your purchase.

2. Several Slabs vs. One Slab

Is the live edge table one slab or a combination of several slabs? It’s worth noting that single, large slabs of wood are a rarity. Consider how old a tree must be to produce one wood slab that is more than 3-feet wide to put things into perspective.

Bearing that in mind, you should be prepared to shell out an appropriate amount of money that respects the scarcity and age of a large live edge slab. In contrast, live edge tables made of various pieces of wood joined together are not as rare because the trees are younger. Therefore, these types of live edge tables are typically more affordable.

3. Thin vs. Thick

The thinner the wood is milled, the higher the chances that your live edge table will be more susceptible to twisting and warping. A reputable sawmill (such as Brick Mill Furniture) mills live edge slabs with a thickness of not less than 3 inches. Doing so accounts for the expected changes to occur in the wood during the drying process.

Be cautious of finished live edge tables that are below 1-inch thick. They were overly warped; the woodworkers faced challenges in shaping the wood into the finished product or cut too thin.

4. Overall Craftsmanship

A top-notch live edge table isn’t nailed together. Rather, it’s joined with a multitude of joints or double dowels. Inside, the wood must be sanded properly, with the joints sturdy and tight. 

Collars, bowties, and other inlays must be constructed of solid wood or metal alloy and inserted into the wood instead of being painted or constructed from decals. If the table base is made of metal, the wedding should be examined for cracks. For live edge tables of exceptional quality, the weld is ground down for conspicuousness.

Additionally, metal table bases should be inset into the tabletop of the live edge table as opposed to simply being joined in place for a seamless, smooth line on the underside of the table.

FAQ

What is the price range of live edge tables?

A large live edge table will cost anywhere between $1,500 and $10,000. The price varies based on the size of the table and the finish, labor, whether or not you prefer an epoxy on your table, and the species of wood.

What makes live edge tables so pricey?

A live edge table is costly for a couple of reasons, for starters, the uniqueness. Reputable manufacturers such as Brick Mill Furniture use rare wood that sets their pieces apart from the pack.  It can take years for slabs to properly dry, and larger slabs come from older and rarer trees.

What’s the best wood for a live edge table?

In the US, black walnut provides unrivaled stability. However, Claro walnut, Cherry, and maple are excellent alternatives. Black, red, or white oaks are also great options to consider, in addition to sycamore.