This bench was built from two massive 2-1/2"-thick slabs of white oak, taken from the same tree. I haven't worked with live edge slabs all that much before. I thought it might be interesting to build a piece that retained the live, waney edges of the slab - the sort of "tree-ness" of the wood - while balancing it with precise, hand-cut joinery. The top of the bench is left textured from a round-bottom coopering plane - it feels nice when you run your fingers over it. The original plan was for this bench to have some sort of lettering carved across the top. After going around and around on what might work, and driving my friends and family nuts with this complete and utter non-problem, I decided to leave the lettering off altogether. Better to remain silent and thought a fool, and so forth.
