Polhavn Woodfabrik
is an atelier designing and creating custom, handcarved wood pieces. Objects
crafted range from signs and furniture to artistic decoration and sculpture.
Specialities include rustic furniture from the Alaskan forest to foreign-style
folkcrafts. Select -quality local white spruce and paper birch, supplemented
with alder, aspen and willow, are featured. Many works are executed in basswood
and pine since Philip Marshall, the owner and woodcarver, has been trained
in the European tradition using these woods. He uses hand gouges and chisels
with a mallet in the Swiss-German style.
We invite you
to peruse our image gallery on this introductory page and in the subsections
noted in the lefthand margin. If you do not see want you want, we welcome
enquiries through the addresses at the bottom of the page. We can help in
the design, choice of materials, size, and finish (and installation, if
local), then provide a timeline and pricing, including shipping.
Image Gallery
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Captain's Stump Chair. Rustic interpretation of a traditional furniture design in search of an Alaskan vernacular style. The two spruce stumps are joined by a dowel-into-mortises connection. Shoulder joints are dry-fit with chalk marking. The main stump base was leveled by being held in place upside-down by pinch blocks attached to a custom-made stand that provided a reference surface for a router. Front legs are mortised and tenoned to the seat slab with wedges. A leg and rungs are joined with scribed-fit mortise and tenons. The sculptured seat is personally harvested, then seasoned and milled local larch. Cleat and seat slabs are held in place by screws whose holes are plugged. The seat's rear screws holes are enlarged to allow for wood movement. Eight, hand-rubbed coats of custom-made furniture crème polish are applied to the chair. Signed and dated on the underside. 40”H x 30” W x 36”D; alder, black and white spruce, larch and walnut. September 2009. Price: $1100 |
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Spruce Burl Bowl. This is a large, single–piece white spruce (Picea glauca) burl harvested from a standing dead tree still intact. Roughed out with a chain saw, it was later shaped by hand with traditional European gouges, chisels and mallet. Its handles are hand-carved with a German acanthus leaf design. No sanding, only tooling, has led to the finish. Holes were sealed with clear epoxy. Danish oil is on the exterior, Clou organic finish (citrus oil-based; food-compatible) covers the inside. 24”L x 18”W x 10”D; white spruce; November 2009. Price: $300. |
 
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Tri-Y Pack Chair. This is an original Alaskan vernacular design
of my own adapted from the Kilvington slab pack chair of Parham College, England.
His design was probably inspired by two-piece African folding chairs. The prototype
was created in September 2008 at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Rockport,
Maine, under Jon Brooks. I have to season the birch (and rarely willow) for a year or
two before work; longer if I’ve left the bark on to promote spalting. Maintaining
orientation of the interconnecting pieces in space as I crafted the chair necessitated my
creating an adjustable 3-D framework with thumbscrew pinch blocks that holds the
round stock. Drilling the compound angle holes for the set pins requires levels, sight
sticks and an assistant. The finish is two coats of Danish oil so that the chair can be
used outdoors. 32”H x 12”W x 30”D; Alaskan birch, oak; November 2009. Price:
$250-300. |