Table Top Slabs

The Lumber Shack produces some of the best Live Edge Furniture pieces in the states from trees found here in the rich, fertile landscape of Central Iowa.  Our Black Walnut is known as the sought after "World Famous Select Iowa Black Walnut".  Our Live Edge Slabs & Furniture are made from a combination of salvaged wood, locally harvested by our tree service crew, as well as select mature trees responsibly harvested from Central Iowa timbers & groves. If there is only one thing we can know, its how to find and cut beautiful wood for creating the most beautiful raw tabletop lumber slabs.

On certain lumber crotches or logs, our lumber slabs are kept together through the entire milling and drying process.  By doing so, we end up with a tabletop with the opportunity for you to choose both colormatched and bookmatched slabs for your projects.  Our Live Edge Bookmatched Slabs can be used for a large variety of different furniture projects, but there is no arguing against how beautifully stunning a bookmatched Table Top set looks.  Live Edge Bookmatched Table Top Slabs are available for use on many different table projects such as Dining Room Tables, Kitchen Tables, Farmhouse Slab Tables, Dining Slab Tables, Coffee Tables, End Tables, Console Tables, TV Stands, Many styles of Benches, Countertops, Bar Tops, and many other uses.

What are bookmatched flitches and how are they created?

The shape of a log, the quality of the wood and the process in which the lumber is milled and dried will influence the design and appearance of a table. We cut high-quality logs into thick flitches, or slabs which are then kiln dried in our dehumidification kiln.  Bookmatched flitches or slabs, display the unique character of the tree in a mirror image as depicted in the right.  A flitch is a cut through a log from bark to bark, giving it the natural edge, or live edge appearance.  To bookmatch is to open two flitches or boards that were face to face in the tree, much like the pages in a book, and place them side by side.  When a flich is thick, it is commonly called a slab. Bookmatches, also known as sequenced lumber, add beauty and dimension to furniture, as well as consistency.