{"id":39450,"date":"2017-05-04T17:42:18","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T23:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=39450"},"modified":"2017-05-04T17:42:18","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T23:42:18","slug":"hand-crafting-heirlooms-with-ryan-j-pierce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/hand-crafting-heirlooms-with-ryan-j-pierce\/","title":{"rendered":"Hand-Crafting Heirlooms with Ryan J. Pierce"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan J. Pierce<\/b> is a woodworker based just south of Oxford<\/b> and north of Taylor<\/b>. He works out of a wood shed in his backyard. He built the shed himself, though at the moment it doesn’t have any stairs and stands about two feet off the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt got off level and I needed to get under there, so I just pulled those out,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cI use to work under the house in the basement until I realized that I was going to need a lot more room so I built this space. It\u2019s been good in some respects, because I\u2019ve had to rely on hand tools.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/a>
Hand Tools<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His hand tool approach has the added benefit of cutting down on much of the equipment he would otherwise need.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUsing hand tools, I make these shavings instead of saw dust,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cSo I don’t need a large dust collection vent or a big drum sander, or any other large industrial pieces. It does take a little bit longer but I also think it adds a handmade feel to it. With that said I do plan on getting bigger tools at some point.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Stepping into his workspace, the first item of note is a 10\u2019 board laying across a worktable. The piece consists of 3 planks glued together that will act as a back to a commission he recently took on for a couple expecting a child.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a toy box,\u201d said Pierce, pointing to a chalkboard sketch of the project. \u201cWhat I\u2019m doing with this is leveling it out. This board is taller than the other two so you have to take your planer across.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/a>
Pierce demonstrates how to get all three planks of the back piece flush with each other.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Picasso quote is scrawled above the toy box design: \u201cAction is the foundational key to success.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pierce\u2019s first commissioned piece was a coffee table.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to this guy at a party and ended up doing a table for him,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cI did a live-edge table, but when it was done he wouldn’t reply to texts or answer my calls.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With a fully-built coffee table sitting around, Pierce decided to toss it up on Instagram and see if anyone else wanted it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can still see it on my account, you just have to scroll way, way back,\u201d said Pierce.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Pierce started, he was making small figures as a hobby. Having just graduated from college he was looking for something to do other than go back for more school.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bottom panel of the toy box rests against a wall. Two rows of three holes divide the piece into thirds. These holes are where the two wall panels will connect to the base. The majority of Pierce\u2019s work typically does not utilize screws, and the pieces that do use them often hide the fact.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/a>
Bottom Board of toy box. This is where the walls will lock in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll use a screw if it\u2019s the best thing,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cWhen you\u2019re woodworking, you have to constantly be mindful of wood mobility. It\u2019s a living material and as moisture comes in and out of a piece of wood it will expand and shrink. In quarries, they would take a wedge and drive it in a fissure. The wood would expand and crack open the rock. You can\u2019t stop wood, it\u2019s going to do what it wants to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Great build quality is not just the goal, but for Pierce it\u2019s the point of it all. When a commission leaves his workshop, he wants it to stand the test of time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI try, as much as I can, to be in the business of making furniture that will last generations so their grandkids can have it as an heirloom,\u201d said Pierce.<\/span><\/p>\n

That goal starts with having high quality wood to use for each project, which is what led him to open Oxford Slab and Lumber Co.<\/b> with John Haltom<\/b>. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not really any one place to get it around here, you just have to find it where\u00a0 <\/span>you can,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cWhich is part of why we opened the saw mill.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/a>
Pierce and Haltom at Oxford Slab and Lumber Co.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Owning their own mill allows them to not only have a direct supply, but to also oversee processing of the wood every step of the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to get the moisture content of the wood down before you can actually use it,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cYou\u2019ll start with a slab and let it air dry through what’s called stack and stickering. You\u2019ve got to stack it in a specific way so that air can move through it and then you let it sit for a year or two.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

By then the wood should be down to 12% moisture content, but that number still needs to be brought down.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Stack and Stickering<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHouses with central air are about 6%, back in the day they\u2019d just use the air dried wood because they didn\u2019t have central air constantly pulling moisture out,\u201d said Pierce.<\/span><\/p>\n

To reach the final step of processing the lumber, you\u2019ll need a wood kiln. Types of kilns vary from solar-heated to massive industrial-grade machines. Pierce and Haltom are currently towards the end of building their own kiln for Oxford Slab and Lumber Co.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis one just catches the sun,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cWe\u2019ve got the walls painted black to help absorb heat and we\u2019re putting this clear roofing on top to let the sun in and magnify it. \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hearing the amount of knowledge Pierce has regarding woodworking and seeing what he is capable of building, you\u2019d be surprised to find out how humble he has remained. Despite having an impressive portfolio, the Oxford woodworker is only looking forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for 6 years and, you know, I wish I had even more experience,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cI\u2019m getting there and I still have a lot to learn, but I know a lot more than I did before.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You can find Ryan J. Pierce on Facebook<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan J. Pierce is a woodworker based just south of Oxford and north of Taylor. He works out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":39451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[7478,10381,5,642,4,10382,10380,78,3,753,10383],"class_list":["post-39450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-business","tag-brittain-thompson","tag-john-haltom","tag-mississippi","tag-ms","tag-oxford","tag-oxford-slab-and-lumber-co","tag-ryan-j-pierce","tag-taylor","tag-the-local-voice","tag-tlv","tag-woodworking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2017-05-04-Ryan-Pierce.jpg?fit=650%2C433&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}