From a Block of Wood

What to do with a beautiful piece of curly pearwood? My love of sushi provided the answer. The first sushi tray (the master) was a long, labor of love: multiple passes with rotary carving bits and grinding wheels to rough out the general concept, followed by countless hours of sanding and subtle revisions to tease out the final elegant proportions and edges.

That master tray was an act of passion. To make this design affordable, we merge old world craftsmanship and modern technology. Each hardwood board is selected by John Luttmann from local, owner-operated sawmills that specialize in select cut saw logs. It is shaped into a rough blank in our woodshop, and then sent to Heartwood Carving for further rough shaping by a computer-controlled machine under the skilled eye of Joe Valasek.

Roughly shaped, it is returned to Artifaqt for finishing. We sand it by hand using twelve progressively finer grades of sandpaper. Using touch as a guide, we create the lyrical contours and uniformly thin edges reminiscent of a musical instrument. We sand to such a fine level that the raw wood reflects light as if already rubbed with oil.

Finishing starts with 3 coats of food-safe oil applied with a soft cloth, each a day apart, followed by a final coating of Clapham’s Beeswax Salad Bowl Finish.

We ship each tray with a 2 ounce jar of Clapham’s, and recommend that you periodically apply a thin layer to your tray. You will find this to be an enjoyable part of your culinary ritual, experiencing each contour of the tray just as we do when making it.

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