Mortise and tenon joints are used to fasten aprons to legs which are then pegged. A shaped glue joint is used to add gluing surface to the edges of the boards which make up the tops. Special fasteners are used to secure the tops to the framework which will allow the tops to expand and contract with seasonal humidity changes. With the exception of the drawer bottom, which is plywood, you will find no particle board, MDF, or another composite. You will find solid wood.
There are some advantages in using composite materials:
the panels tend to be flatter and less susceptible to changing weather
less time is involved in making panels
less coarse sanding is required
and there would be other purposes
What Makes Us Better
When you buy furniture (anything for that matter) you are paying for labor, materials, and overhead. Generally speaking, the materials are the cheapest part of your purchase. So, why scrimp on materials? At River Mill Woods we use quality materials, use machinery to our advantage and yours, use our craftsmanship to add the extra touches and details to our products, and because we are small we maintain a low overhead.
When you compare furniture (anything for that matter) price should only be one of the factors. When you compare our furniture to mass-produced furniture and you study the differences in construction you will understand why our furniture carries a higher price tag. The larger companies try to keep their furniture at a certain price point. To that end they employ a lot of automated machinery, composites and have a very sophisticated finishing processes (10 different steps or more) where they utilize very mundane wood and make it look like prized walnut. In contrast, we try to stay at a particular quality point.
There is a certain rule of manufacturing (I suspect it applies to most products): One can do a great job with the construction but finish the piece poorly and nobody will want it, or do a mediocre job with the construction and do a great job with the finish and people will overlook the construction faults. At River Mill Woods we strive to offer quality construction as well as a great finish that showcases the wood.
Our Furniture Lasts for Generations
If you compare apples to apples we will be a bargain. When you buy our Arts and Crafts products you won’t be changing furniture every few years because the doors are falling apart, or you have scratches that have penetrated the veneers, or your furniture is falling apart because the MDF or particle board is literally turning into dust that you vacuum on a regular basis. When our furniture is able to be passed on from one generation to the next then it becomes obvious that you understand quality and value.
To put our furniture into perspective, consider the cost of a casket. Our caskets range in price from $2000 – $4500. Compare those prices to what a mortuary charges and these will be a bargain as well. Compare our casket prices to our furniture prices and you decide which is the better value for your money: something necessary that you are buying to bury, or necessary furniture that you are buying to use for many years. When is the last time you had your car worked on for a malfunction that didn’t cost you several hundred dollars? How long did you own your car? You won’t have to work on our furniture and it’ll outlast several vehicles with minimal care and common sense.
If you don’t see what you want or need on the website, by all means get in touch with us and we can discuss a solution for your problem. If you have a picture of something you need we can work off of that. We’ve done many special projects for people over the years.
Thanks for taking a look at what we have to offer.
Pat and Daryl