Recent Work

[Charles Freeborn]

Delivered this last week. Custom sawn veneer from client's vineyard tree, hand forged steel base. Stupid amount of work ( &$) for a simple cabinet, but everyone's happy. They use it for a linen cabinet.

Charles Freeborn | Fine Furniture

[widebody911]

The base is forged?

[nzporsche944s2]

Beautiful work! I love how the doors sit inside the frame. How did you do the closure? Is it that click-clack type of catch (sorry I don't know the proper name - push to click open, push to click closed)

[Charles Freeborn]

Originally Posted by widebody911

The base is forged?

Yep.
Propane burner, fire brick oven, bfh, anvil and away we go. Then I cut the parts and Tig Weld together....


I also made pulls but we decided to go with push latches, which have improved greatly in recent years. The spring mechanism is now built into the hinge and the catch is a simple magnetic deal.

Wire brush finish, trimmed, drilled and tapped...
Like I said, ridiculous amount of work...

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Charles Freeborn

Charles Freeborn | Fine Furniture

Nice work, looks like it is in the right kind of house to frame it.

Went to your website, in the mid-1980's while still in architecture school my then future wife and I went to the Wendell Castle exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts. I could not afford the $100 book, but bought a few postcards of his work.

These lamps I made at about that time were influenced by his work and something I saw at a high end furniture store call the House of Denmark.

George Kachadoorian, Architect PLLC

[MMiller]

Beautiful man...

Handcrafted in the USA.

[Baz]

Beautiful work, Charles....a real labor of love.

Thanks for sharing!

[Gogar]

Beautiful! I agree I like the MCM styling.

[speeder]

Very nice! Hats off to a craftsman.

[rusnak]

Custom sawn veneer from client's vineyard tree

^ This is the part that has me "?!!"

[Charles Freeborn]

Originally Posted by kach22i

Nice work, looks like it is in the right kind of house to frame it.

Went to your website, in the mid-1980's while still in architecture school my then future wife and I went to the Wendell Castle exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts. I could not afford the $100 book, but bought a few postcards of his work.

These lamps I made at about that time were influenced by his work and something I saw at a high end furniture store call the House of Denmark.

Well done! Wendell was building his tall clock series when I was there. There was one of them in a Museum in Bellevue WA a few years back.

Originally Posted by rusnak

Custom sawn veneer from client's vineyard tree

^ This is the part that has me "?!!"

They own a vineyard in Napa CA. There was a hundred year old Eucalyptus tree that had gotten dangerous so they took it down and had it rough milled into lumber. The original intent was to use it for flooring so the boards are all rough 1 x 5 ( would final mill to 3/4 x 3 1/2 tongue and groove). I took it in rough form and sawed it into 1/8" thick book-matched veneer and glued it to plywood substrate. Insane amount of work... I've built a couple of pieces for them from it, including their front door. House is very well designed MCM / Contemporary, so this style of work fits well. Several shots on my website, including the wood and metal dining set. www.charlesfreeborn.com

[sc_rufctr]

Fabulous work Charles! That cabinet has a real presence.

[KFC911]

That's simply beautimous work Charles...when do you go into mass production ?

[LWJ]

Very cool!

[Charles Freeborn]

Many thanks. This table is in the same house with same veneer, but in a radial pattern.
Metal work on this is done by Jefferson Mack in SF. Waaaaay out of my league...

[Brian in VA]

Your work is beautiful. I like that Joe Jackson bench

[rusnak]

One of a kind work. Very nice!

[fanaudical]

Wow - Very cool - Thanks for sharing!

[gassy]

Really nice thanks for posting

[tabs]

Arts & Crafts meets Modernism. Your work is superlative.

I have Kindel Winterhur, Baker Stately Homes, and Colombo Stile. If I had to do it over I probably would tend towards Modernism.

Btw the half moon design on the coffee table is derivative of Colombo Stilie