Craftsmanship » Moosehead furniture from start to finish craftsmanship | finishes | care | our warranty Every piece of Moosehead furniture starts with top quality hardwood – we buy it from trusted Maine sawmills whose operations are nearly in our backyard. They send the lumber to us kiln-dried, graded, and sawed into assorted lengths, which we immediately put into dry storage, ready to go. In comes an order, and our work begins. Step 1: We break down each order into all the parts we'll need to fill it – the seat, steam-bent back, turned spindles and stretchers, and legs for our Shaker side chair, for example. Then we crosscut the lumber into different lengths, always aiming for the longest, defect-free cuts we can get. That's where quality starts. And, we send small or defective pieces off to our grinder and boiler – not to the landfill. That's where our commitment to green starts. Step 2: Pallets of cut-to-length lumber head for the line saws to be cut into narrow strips, which are far less likely than thick boards to crack or warp. During this step, we also cut out any stresses that occurred during drying – another step in our constant and careful quality control process. Step 3: We glue and clamp the narrow strips to make strong, warp-resistant panels. As we build each panel to the needed width – for dresser tops, sides, and fronts – we meticulously match wood colors. Step 4: The panels go off to be trimmed, shaped, sanded, drilled, mortise and tenoned – and, during this step, become the parts our assembly crew needs to build everything from nightstands and beds to dressers and chests. Step 5: Sanding is often under appreciated, but it's actually the most important step in our constant quest for consistent and beautiful finish color. This is "sanding round one," and we're painstakingly fussy about it. Step 6: By now, we have all the perfectly crafted pieces we need, and we're ready to start assembling them into a bed, a nightstand, a dresser – whatever we need to fill a particular order. This custom approach – no mass production here – means we can keep our customers "in the know" through every step of the process. Step 7: Our skilled assemblers build the framework of each piece – they put together the sides and top of a dresser using mortise and tenon components with full flotation dustproof panels, for instance. Then they send the frame on a roll conveyor to be matched with the dovetailed drawers already crafted for the order. Each drawer is fitted precisely to each dresser frame, so it slides smoothly and easily. Step 8: Assembled pieces now move on to "whitewood inspection" where we scrutinize each unfinished item under very bright lights. We look especially for any areas that need re-sanding because the next step is... Step 9: Finishing. Our finishers hand-spray toner and stain on each piece of furniture and then wipe away the excess by hand until they achieve the exact color ordered...maple, chocolate, gold, cherry, cinnamon, onyx, or white. It takes an excellent sense of color and a keen eye to judge the amount of stain and wiping needed to hit the color mark perfectly – and to make sure just the right amount of stain gets into each decorative crevice. And, since every piece of wood takes stain differently, making sure colors go on evenly and are matched perfectly is truly an art. Step 10: After staining and wiping, the furniture goes into our drying oven for about 20 minutes. This process ensures the stain coat is uniformly dry and ready for the next step. Step 11: After drying, we hand-spray a sealer coat on every piece of furniture. The sealer sinks into the wood to add luster and to protect it from spills as well as humidity and overly dry air. The sealer makes the grain in the wood "stand up," so each piece goes through another round of hand-sanding and rubbing until the finish is smooth and flawless – the last stage in our six-step finishing process. Step 12: It's time for a final inspection, and if all's well, the furniture is ready for packing and shipping – and we take great care at this point in the process. We use mostly recyclable packing materials and, in many situations, add hardwood crating to the bottom of the packing box to provide extra support and protection during shipping.