Making a steamed-wood bench

Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

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September 9th, 2010 8

This awesome video shows furniture maker extraordinaire Mike Jarvi creating one of his signature steamed-wood benches from a single slab of wood. The video documents the several-month-long process, from chainsawing the log to finishing the bench. Great filmmaking and soundtrack, too. Rock n’ roll woodworking! [Thanks, Eric!]

Mike Jarvi

8 thoughts on “Making a steamed-wood bench”

jstack says:

September 10th, 2010 at 6:21 am

This man is my hero!!
GuyInMilwaukee says:

September 10th, 2010 at 9:32 am

Woodworking porn. Beautiful project.
That said… I’d much rather have a voice-over explaining each step than the music track.
Alan Parekh says:

September 11th, 2010 at 11:39 am

What a great video showing this amazing process. I was initially thinking this was a few pieces of bent wood glued in place.
jimofoz says:

September 11th, 2010 at 7:56 pm

This was one of the best DIY videos I’ve seen. Great way to make a bench. Details aren’t really needed – pretty straight forward technique (after several dozen tries anyway).