According to our OLCC licence we are not a wine bar, and if we were that would create all sorts of problems so what I'm building here is not a wine bar. The height of the counter top was determined by the barrel which will form the support on one end. The barrel is 34 inches high. With two inches of wood sitting on top that comes to 36 inches, or the exact height of a counter top. Bars are taller. A bar stool is about 34 inches tall and a counter stool is about 24. So, this really is a wine counter.After all of the work of putting the wood together comes the fun work of sanding and staining. This is where you get to see the real character of the wood start to emerge. That's Mike Campbell above helping out with the sanding. While he was finishing off the sanding work I began work on the design for where the counter meets the wall.
There is a pillar that I wanted to wrap the counter around. You don't want to have to haul a two hundred pound piece of wood back and forth from your shop to try and make it fit, so what you do is make a template. I made this one out of 3/8 inch plywood. I would have preferred 1/4 inch but didn't have any laying around. It was a good thing I used this technique. It took me three tries to get it to fit just right. You can see in the picture at right how strangely shaped it is. Once I knew that it would fit, I set in on the edge of the bar, uh, I mean, counter, traced it out and then cut it. Now I hope when we go to place the counter in the shop it will fit as well as the template did (I'll bring a rasp and a planer just in case.)
Finally, we get to stain the wood. This is where everything comes together. I'm using a medium walnut Danish oil for this project. It is what I've used for all of the other projects at the shop. I like that it seals the wood, but doesn't completely encapsulate it in plastic. The more people touch the counter, the more beautiful it will get. I will absorb oil from every person who puts their hands on it, and will get more and more beautiful as time goes by. The next job for this project is to make a couple of stands that will help to hold it up. Then a week from today we'll go over and install it. I think it is going to be a great place to gather and have a glass of wine. I can already see Kathy installed behind it sharing a story and a glass. It is fun to build something that will be used to create community, where people I don't know will come and sit and relax. Now all I have to do is build a new light fixture for over the bar (the old one is for sale!), and build some new display shelves for wine. I can do all that and hold down a full-time job. Sure I can . . .