Since building and displaying live edge tables for the cafe, there has been a ton of interest in custom Live Edge pieces. The purpose of this post is to demystify the process and give people an idea of what is possible, and how to get your hands on your own piece of live edge furniture. I hope this information helps, whether you plan to build your own, or find local suppliers and artisans to help.
Suppliers/Artisans
Unfinished Slab of Black Walnut
The main consideration in obtaining a unique live edge piece is choosing your slab. Since every piece is one of a kind, nothing will ever be exactly the same as something you’d see in the cafe. This is actually a good thing, because each one is a unique piece of art, personalized to your taste. Here are some local suppliers to help in your search:
Located in Bedford, Nova Scotia, this is the outlet where most of the pieces at Edible Art originated. They don’t do finished tables, but can do sanding and joining pieces together.
Dave Barry / NaturalWood.ca
Dave is a fellow artisan, who is also a supplier of locally milled live edge slabs. As a certified arborist, he brings them down himself, milling and kiln drying them, and also offering his services to create custom pieces.
Located in Blockhouse, Nova Scotia, they are a full service supplier offering custom furniture and kitchen cabinetry. This is where I found the famous 8ft Walnut “Angel” slab at the cafe.
Other artisans are encouraged to get in touch with listing info. Finding the time to build these myself has proven quite challenging, so it would be nice to have more people to refer interested customers to, since the cafe has become a bit of a showroom of rare hardwood live edge pieces.
Pricing/Materials/Methods
Stainless Steel Hairpin Leg
This stuff is not cheap… but it will last a lifetime. All suppliers sell by the board foot, with the price ranging from from a few hundred dollars for a modest size raw milled slab, to a few thousand for longer, thicker, or particularly rare species.
The materials used in the cafe are all natural, having started off with Linseed Oil, then upgrading to Hemp Oil more recently, which deserves it’s own blog post. The extensive epoxy inlays you see in the cafe are G-2 resin from Lee Valley, allowing you to put anything into your table, from family keepsakes, to jewelry, stone, shells, marbles, and even things like baby teeth. Of course Venezuelan piranhas too!
All kinds of legs can be found on amazon, ranging from bar height, pub height, or standard 30″ height. My favorite legs are stainless steel hairpin, which can be found at Hairpin Legs Canada.
The process employed in creating our cafe tables is not complicated, but it is time consuming. The raw slabs are sanded to 220 grain, with any gaps thoroughly cleaned and taped off for resin sealing and/or inlays. Pouring the resin is an all day process of returning every so often to refill as the resin slowly seeps in, then checking back every hour or two with a hair dryer in hand, which helps to pop the inevitable bubbles. After curing, the resin sanding is quite the process. Once sanded flush to 220 grain, wet sanding is 
performed in 200 grain increments, all the way to 3000 grain automotive paper or pads for the mirror finish. There are some great youtube videos on all this stuff.
The rule of thumb for the natural oil finish is once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, and once a year for a lifetime. While that may work for residential applications, it doesn’t quite cut it for commercial use. I re-oil the tables every month or so at the cafe, particularly the newer ones, since there is such heavy traffic, and the constant wipe downs with bleach water. It’s fascinating to see their properties change as they age. After about three years of this, the oldest tables are pretty much impenetrable, and even refuse to take on more oil, besides a very thin coat. While this is most definitely a long term and tedious operation, the results are definitely worth it. There’s nothing like the warmth of open pore natural hardwood with no petroleum products (polyurethane) involved.
Listing of Cafe Pieces
These are in order of creation, and you can likely see the progression of skill level throughout the process.
Cherry Booth w/stone inlays / Cast n’ Craft Resin (Never use this!)
Black Walnut Dining Table
Beach stones from Scott’s Bay
White Oak and Elm booth
Black Walnut (Angel) table w/extensive inlays and polyurethane finish… to be sanded off eventually!
Italian Olive Wood cookie (cross section) tables, with Venezuelan Piranha inlay.
African Bubinga trio of tables, which can be joined for large parties.
Seats 12-14 people!
Here are some pics from other fun projects:
Cherry Client table
Spalted Maple Live Edge client piece
Resin Madness
This obviously has nothing to do with live edge, but I just had to share. This thing has been the center piece of many parties in the dead of winter, and will most likely be the subject of it’s own blog post at some point!
Off Grid Hot Tub construction
Wood Fired Hot Tub, fed with rain catchment
Seats up to 12 people
Jesse your work is so incredible! Such talent! And I love how you can personalize each piece with inlays of jewelery, family keepsakes etc! What an awesome idea!
Thank you so much. I had initially started building tables just to replace the cheap and mismatched ones we had since opening. So many people commented and inquired about how to get these kinds of tables, that I had to share. I’m really looking forward to doing even more personalized pieces, while also replacing every table in the cafe, and even eventually the counter tops with live edge works of art!
Your tables are gorgeous, Jesse, and Edible Art Cafe is such an oasis of good, healthy, delicious, gourmet food and just a great place to spend time with good people. Such interesting and enlightening things going on there all the time! There is great, positive energy coming from you and Ariell and the things you create together! Wish we lived closer! One of these days, we’ll be up to visit. Can’t wait till that day!
Beautiful work, Jesse! Looking forward to seeing your tables up close the next time we’re in the area….