Handmade Furniture

Are you ready to relax in fine handcrafted barrel furniture?

Wine Barrel Furniture – Features and Characteristics

The inside of wine barrels can come in many different colors. Anywhere from red to a deep dark purple and even a light brown, which means the barrel was a chardonnay barrel. The outside will usually be a clean golden brown with a few markings from the barrel bands. When we build our wine barrel furniture we usually try to keep a uniform color pattern when possible. For an order with 3-4 pieces we will usually pick through to find similar type of barrel staves. Any larger wine barrel furniture orders will most likely include a couple of pieces that will slightly vary from one another. The barrel bands are galvanized steel which we wire brush clean to a polished silver color then clean coat to a nice satin finish. The galvanized steel is highly rust resistant already, which makes for the perfect material to be used for brackets through out our wine barrel furniture line.

Vinery Brands – Stamping and Markings

Often before ordering, customers will ask us if we have their favorite vineyard’s barrels available. Unfortunately, most likely we won’t. There are lots of wineries out there and when we receive our barrels it’s usually from one place at a time. Anywhere from 100-200 barrels will keep us supplied for a while, so we don’t normally carry a wide variety at any given time. In addition, it is important to know that most markings on a wine barrel will be from the cooperage not the vineyard them self. The coopers and cooperages (people who make the barrels) run their own business and sell the barrels to the wineries. If your favorite winery isn’t operating a large scale, finding a marked barrel from them can be pretty difficult. However, you never know so please don’t hesitate to ask!

 

Bourbon Barrel Furniture – Features and Characteristics 

As I mentioned earlier, the insides of the barrels are charred, which means the furniture will be black on one side. The outside of the barrel wood has darker colors as well as colors that range from browns, greens and black. Before each project, the staves are cleaned, rounded, and sanded to perfection without removing too much of the material patinas. Leaving only a smooth and clean finish. You may also notice some cracks, splits and chips in the wood from the years of ware and tare. Not to worry, very large cosmetic cracks will be filled in with a clear epoxy. The steel bands are wire brushed clean and covered with a satin clear coat. This keeps the barrels from further rusting and gives them a polished look. The metal bands are used to make our brackets, which help keep our furniture solid. Bourbon Barrels provide a lot of great material and we try to use as much as possible.

Distillery Brands – Stamping and Markings

This subject is one of the most frequently asked about, so I want to make sure I thoroughly cover each aspect. Most distilleries will only stamp one side of the barrel. And as far as specific whiskey brands go, it is very important to know that most large distilleries make many different whiskeys. For instance, the Buffalo Trace Distillery also makes Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, W.L. Weller, Van Winkle and a few other popular ones. Unfortunately, they don’t brand these barrels with their actual names – the barrels will simply have the Buffalo Trace logo with dates, batch numbers, and maybe the smaller brand’s initials. At Hungarian Workshop we frequently receive requests for Jack Daniel’s barrels. Unfortunately, they do not burn the big Jack logo into all their barrels. They have over a million barrels down in Tennessee, it would take far too long for them to brand each barrel. The ones you see branded on the side and top are rare, and meant mainly for showrooms, bars, tasting rooms, and for other marketing campaigns. On a related note, Jack Daniel’s isn’t bourbon. There are a number of rules and laws that need to be followed in order for a whiskey to qualify as bourbon, and this is true for Scotch as well. To learn a more on this subject please click here.

DONT FORGET, ALL BOURBON IS WHISKEY BUT NOT ALL WHISKEY IS BOURBON.

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