furniture from the urban forest
Our Mill
Down the hill from our mill yard is the building that still houses the old belt driven woodworking equipment that the city used 100 years ago to turn city trees into fences, tables, flooring and foot bridges. At City Bench we’ve made an old idea new again—right next to where it was first done. And just down the hill from the old wood shop is the current tree nursery for URI, the Urban Resources Inititative, a terrific non-profit group that is responsible for all the tree planting that occurs in New Haven.
Connecticut is home to a great diversity of tree species and an abundance of hardwoods. It also has the highest percentage of tree cover in urban and community areas of all 50 states, with 67%. We’re #1 for people living among trees.
You’ll notice a large shingled barn in the background of most of our slab photos. That is the historic Sheep Barn, built in 1902, after Hartford gave New Haven four sheep. Those four sheep became a large flock that grazed the fields formerly covering East Rock. You can see the sheep and the barn in the below photo taken in 1915.
Browse through our slabs and furniture and be in touch if you have any questions. We’d love to hear from you.
How We Mill
Slabs
We flitch saw most of our logs. This means we cut the log into slabs keeping both natural edges. We then reform the log with stickers between the slabs to ensure a healthy air flow as the wood cures.
Our slabs air dry until they are below 28% moisture content, at which point they are safe to put in the kiln. We kiln dry them down to 6-8% moisture content. Slabs are kiln dried after an order is made.
Flitch sawing allows us to make use of the greatest amount of wood from our logs and offers eye catching book-matched possibilities. All our slabs are in sequence and numbered so you can compare them and find the best match for your job.
We have a tremendous variety of slabs from a large variety of hardwood species, in lengths from 4’-20’, widths from 12”-60”, and most commonly a thickness of 2.5”. We sometimes vary thicknesses when required by a specific project, but over the years we have found 2.5” is thick enough to account for the warping that slabs tend to experience while drying and allow for plenty of choice when it comes time to design a piece.
Have a log you need sawn into slabs or lumber? Call us for our current hourly rate. We are happy to mill to your specifications and can help with transportation of logs and boules as well.
Lumber
We produce lumber in a range of thicknesses, from 4/4 (”four quarter”, 1” thick) to 12/4. Boards are milled at least 6” wide. We will mill quarter, rift or flat sawn lumber depending on the species and size of the log and what types of lumber we will need for upcoming projects. Custom milling is available upon request.
Our slabs air dry until they are below 28% moisture content, at which point they are safe to put in the kiln. We kiln dry them down to 6-8% moisture content. Slabs are kiln dried after an order is made.
Flitch sawing allows us to make use of the greatest amount of wood from our logs and offers eye catching book-matched possibilities. All our slabs are in sequence and numbered so you can compare them and find the best match for your job.
We have a tremendous variety of slabs from a large variety of hardwood species, in lengths from 4’-20’, widths from 12”-60”, and most commonly a thickness of 2.5”. We sometimes vary thicknesses when required by a specific project, but over the years we have found 2.5” is thick enough to account for the warping that slabs tend to experience while drying and allow for plenty of choice when it comes time to design a piece.
Have a log you need sawn into slabs or lumber? Call us for our current hourly rate. We are happy to mill to your specifications and can help with transportation of logs and boules as well.
Lumber
We produce lumber in a range of thicknesses, from 4/4 (”four quarter”, 1” thick) to 12/4. Boards are milled at least 6” wide. We will mill quarter, rift or flat sawn lumber depending on the species and size of the log and what types of lumber we will need for upcoming projects. Custom milling is available upon request.
Our mills We use two different sawmills:
- Wood-Mizer LT-40 Wide: The Wood-Mizer is a bandsaw mill that allows us to cut smaller logs and make dimensional lumber.
- Peterson DWS—The Peterson is a chainsaw mill that can cut a 63” diameter log, which handles most of the bigger logs we take in from the areas we salvage.
Moisture content
We list most of our available slabs on our site. The majority of slabs have been drying for several years and most are below 28% moisture, which means they are ready to put into the kiln. We kiln dry our slabs to 6-8% moisture content. For the moment we will put the slab in the kiln after it is ordered. If preferred, we can sell air dried and green slabs.
Our Shop and Showroom
We build all our furniture out of three barns in Higganum, CT. It’s here that we have our woodshop, finishing studio, and our kiln for drying slabs and lumber. We also have a small metal shop in the front barn. Depending on your piece’s requirements, we may be working on it anywhere from a few days to a few weeks but each project begins with an approved sketch—similar to the one below.
Our showroom is located down the street from our shop in a 19th
century hoe factory’s storage facility. Feel free to make an appointment
to visit us anytime. We’d love to see you.
Some photos of our shop process follow as well as photos of the showroom.
203-733-8363
info@city-bench.com
Hamden, CT
06517
Visits by appointment
Higganum, CT
06441
Visits by appointment
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