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Most of our customers are familiar with our “fishing chairs.” We didn’t come up with the design – it’s actually a traditional African design – but we love building these chairs.

When people see one of these chairs for the first time, they will often walk up, grab the back and sort of shake it a little, then ask “Is it sturdy enough to sit on?” It’s tough not to laugh when that happens because these chairs will hold anybody! We are careful to build them so that they don’t rock and won’t tip over easily.

Some of our chairs are really casual; they are perfect for porch sittin’ and easy to move around. Some of them are sanded to a high sheen and are built out of specialty lumber like Black Walnut or Cherry. All of them have the Push Hard brand on them.

Choosing a chair is FUN. Sitting in each one, leaning back, checking to see how it fits you, deciding if you want a tall chair or a short chair or even a pair of chairs makes people happy.

Right now, we have several pairs of book matched chairs and even some groups of two chairs and a small table/footstool. All of the chairs pictured are Cedar, and available for purchase at $100 each.  These photos are great because they are still works-in-progress, but you get the idea.

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Most of the time when we build a new piece of furniture we finish it with a hand rubbed oil finish instead of a poly finish. Of course, if a customer requests a poly finish we will oblige, but for the most part we prefer a more natural look. There are several reasons we like the hand rubbed oil finish better.

Sometimes, there is a misconception about the need to “preserve” a nice piece of of wooden furniture. People think that polyurethane or something similar will keep the color of the wood from fading. That is true; however, you also lose the opporutnity to see the tones and hues of the natural wood deepen over time.

You can get an almost Zen pleasure from oiling a beautiful piece of wood through the years, watching the colors get deeper and richer with each polish. After just a few years the wood will begin to look almost as if it has a velvety texture.

Besides the joy of watching the color of your piece age beautifully, using a more natural finish lets you feel the wood. A highly sanded and polished chunk of wood is something to make the fingers sing. Any time we attend an art show, it’s fun to sit back and watch people walk up and touch our display. It’s nearly irresistable – the natural texture just seems to pull hands towards it.

In some instances, a poly finish is the better choice. We built tables for a pizza restaurant a few years ago. They looked great until a searing hot pizza pan left whte marks on some of them. A quick sanding and a poly finish and the tables once again look wonderful.

Furniture that will live outside and countertops that will be exposed to moisture often will need a thorough coating of water sealer or a poly finish to avoid rot. So, a natural finish is not always the best way to take care of your functional wooden art. . We think though, that it is preferable most of the time.

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You may have noticed that items disappear from our In Stock Now page, and aren’t always replaced by new items right away. That’s usually because we are working on custom orders. Lots of times, customers will visit the gallery, or see something online or at the shop that they LOVE, but it’s not quite the right size.

The best answer is to have a similar item built to fit your space. Sometimes, customers see photographs of furniture they would like us to build, or have a blueprint. We like building custom stuff because then we know our customers get exactly what they want.

The problem is that the more time we spend working on custom orders, the less time we have to build “in stock now” items. So, please forgive us if our selection seems a little skimpy. If you aren’t sure what you are looking for, come by and browse our photo albums and talk to us about what you like.

(This post originally appeared on 6/24/10)

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Welcome to the Push Hard Lumber Company web site. We hope you enjoy your visit.  Push Hard specializes in creating functional art work out of salvaged, recycled and reclaimed lumber.

If you are in the market for siding, rough cut lumber, a mantle, furniture built of solid wood, bowls, shelves, or anything else that can be handcrafted from specialty lumber, we would love to talk to you. We have some items in stock, and also accept orders for customized pieces built to specification.

We mill most of the lumber we use on site, and use Heart Pine, Walnut, Cherry, Hemlock, Sycamore, Bradford Pear, Oak and whatever else we can find that needs to be re-purposed into a beautiful, useful item.  Our lumber comes from old buildings, trees downed by Mother Nature and trees cut by others. We are proud of the fact that Push Hard Lumber Company never sentences trees to death.

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