Drawing inspiration from farm and industrial tables, Ginnever embarked on creating an one-of-a-kind piece in this hybrid style that is growing in popularity. Like any craftsman in the market for materials, Ginnever started his search for the perfect wood slab online. His country-wide cyber shopping led him to Yoder Lumber’s wide selection of locally-sourced wood slabs and he found the one in a beautiful spalted maple.

Yoder Lumber cut and sanded the maple slab to Ginnever’s specifications and from there, it was a lengthy process of filling cracks with epoxy and ten-plus coats of a polyurethane-oil blend satin finish.

“I slow-drip my projects,” confides Ginnever, working on his slab for an hour or two in the evenings for months on end, racking up over two-hundred hours of labor.

To stabilize the natural cracks in the slab, Ginnever used steel plates made by Paul Schlabach at Sharp Run Wood, on the underside of the tabletop. For an additional element of visual interest, Ginnever opted to include a river style glass panel that runs down the center of the table. Wanting to use all of the slab, he also constructed a matching side table, and later, an intricately inlayed picture frame.

Once the steel legs were attached, custom made by Mast Farm Service, the challenge remained of getting the completed table from Ginnever’s garage to his company’s conference room. A pulley and crate rig got it up the stairs to the office, where it now gets plenty of attention and compliments from employees and visiting clients alike.  

“I found Yoder Lumber to a degree by accident. While researching slab lumber sources for a project I was undertaking I found their website and inventory of product to be quite suitable for my needs. I drove 4 hours to meet with Lavern Troyer and their craftsman. They understood what I was trying to accomplish and offered insightful advice for a novice and helped in the fabrication of the slabs that I could not handle with my compliment of tools. If you were to ask me – “would you drive 8 hours for that product and service?” my reply would be a resounding yes." - Mike Ginnever

Learn more about Yoder Lumber's wide selection of wood slabs for yourself.