Then, as part of his real estate business, he took a trip to Nashville, Tennessee to look at some potential property in a nearby rural area. “There was a guy there who had an old Jack Daniels barrel. I asked if I could take it off his hands, and he agreed.”

Curious to see what he could do with the barrel, James ended up making a bench from it. He still keeps the original of that Classic Bench piece in his office. Since one of his friends was getting married around that time, James also used the whiskey barrel materials to make a Celebration Box, which houses a bottle of whiskey, two shot glasses and cigars.

“I started thinking about what I would want to have, and daydreaming about those products,” James said – and he also found some additional sources of used whiskey and wine barrels, including distilleries like the Greenbrier Distillery, which makes Belle Meade Bourbon. “I asked if there were any additional barrels they were willing to part with, and they said, ‘yes, as long as you make us some stuff.’”

Other distillery partners now include Woodford Reserve and Old Rip Van Winkle. With materials from these sources, James now has a business, Heritage Handcrafted, in making items from reclaimed whiskey barrels. From his original daydreams, he narrowed the available items down to a collection.

In some ways, running a business selling wooden products ties in to James’s family history: his great-grandfather (also named James Broyhill) founded the Broyhill Furniture company in 1926. The company was sold in 1981, before the current James was born; he learned woodworking from his maternal grandfather during his childhood in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

He’s also had a learning curve when making things out of the whiskey and wine barrels. The majority of them are American white oak; to make a barrel out of that wood, it is steamed to get a bow in the wood. So, James said, “When you’re breaking it apart, each individual piece has a slight bow in it, and each individual stave has varying widths.”  There’s also a slight bevel on the edge of the staves (the individual slats of wood that comprise a barrel).

Because of these shapes, James said, “One of the tools I use most often is the straight line ripsaw.” Band saws are also important, because there is a lot of resawing, he said.

In creating one of his favorite projects, a Chandelier light fixture, James said, he experimented with steam bending, making a steam box to “bend wood that was already bent to create more of a fluid effect there. Then I created various jigs to create a grandiose kind of chandelier that stands about five feet tall.” The original piece is in James’s living room.

An additional challenge when working with the barrels is the charring inside of them that gives the whiskey its color and sometimes its taste. “The char remains in the barrel, and it’s messy stuff to work with,” James said.

He has found a process to remove the heavy char, but still maintain its patina. For finish on his products, James applies only a lacquer or water-based polyurethane.

This, plus his other processes, retain the barrels’ patina. The character from this, from the portions on the exterior of the barrel that show were the hoops were which held it together as a barrel, and the char on the interior maintain the distinctiveness of the material.

“It’s what people appreciate most about our products,” James said.

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– Willie Sandry
Camas, Washington

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Festool appoints the TXS with LED illumination to brighten up the drilling area, a battery fuel gauge that monitors the amount of charge remaining, two-bit storage and a reversible belt clip.

There are two packaging options for this drill. The TXS “Plus” version (item 564513) includes an MXC charger, two chucks, one battery, BH 60 Centrotec Bit Holder and a Systainer SYS 1 T-LOC storage case. It sells for $235. Or, for added versatility, Festool also offers a “Set” version (item 564514; $285) that includes everything in the Plus kit as well as a third FastFix Right Angle Chuck for tight-quarters applications.

The company says its new TXS delivers plenty of torque for drilling and driving in a compact and light format “that feels like an extension of your hand.”

The new Festool TXS cordless drill is available now through authorized Festool dealers and includes the company’s Service All-Inclusive® comprehensive protection program, which covers repairs on manufacturing defects for 36 months from the date of purchase.

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Tim Inman: Old Sol always wins. Sunshine is incredibly destructive to both finishes and the substrates under them. UV rays will tear up the varnish and the wood structure. So, to answer your question directly, “No,” this bleaching is not unique to aniline dyes. Aniline dyes are usually considered one of the more lightfast materials when it comes to dying wood. Obviously they are not lightFAST, just fade resistant. When you strip the finish, you will probably discover that the wood itself has also been permanently bleached out. Keeping fine furniture away from the direct (and even indirect) rays of sunshine is the only way to really stop this from happening. If that is not a possibility, then I would suggest that instead of using a fugitive stain you might be better to select a rare-earth pigment. Pigments can indeed be lightfast. Asphaltum (tar) is one virtually lightFAST material we can use for wood stains. Diluted out, it can mimic golden oak, and in stronger concentrations it will go down to Mission oak or even walnuts. The umbers and siennas are also usually lightFAST materials. Remember, light is your enemy, not your friend!

Chris Marshall: Dick, here’s another finishing option you might consider for re-staining that bookcase: ordinary latex paint. You can thin any latex paint color with water and use it as a solid color stain. Thin it out enough, and you’ll be able to see the wood grain through the color like a pigment stain. Just think of all the color options! And they won’t fade as quickly as a dye stain will. Michael Dresdner offers this suggestion in our magazine’s DVD, “The Way to Woodwork: Step-by-Step to a Perfect Finish.” It’s a clever alternative that never would have crossed my mind until I watched Michael’s presentation.

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-Todd Bordner

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