Lasting a century in any legal business is laudable. Here the carvers, sanders and stainers work on constructing and finishing tables. They helped me become what we are.” The tools of the trade are here: table saws, boring machines. “It's been nothing but a wonderful relationship. “Tony said, ‘Pay me a little every month.’” Now Bruce deals with Tony's son-in-law Eddie.
But he had a pal Enzo, who in turn recommended him to Tony in Oceanside, New York, who provided $50,000 worth of machines. Before he could afford anything better, he learned with a Sears home table saw. Honing these delicate skills may require a three-year apprenticeship, like the one underwent some years ago.
In a game of space billiards with albert at rest manual#
Cabinetmakers, who sit atop the woodworking food chain, speak of someone “having good hands”-meaning a proficiency that includes both a keen eye and manual dexterity, skills essential to refurbishing antiques and-a taller task-building custom-made models from scratch. He points out an ivory-colored inlaid design that Peter will affix with wood glue. "A pool table is a cabinet first," Bruce insists, gesturing to the panels of wood on the sides. The layman doesn't associate a pool table with a cabinet. Bruce introduces Peter, a cabinetmaker for 30 years. There used to be a pool room on every corner in New York.”Ĭabinetmakers toil in anterooms on the perimeter of the warehouse. At one time the Bowery had 80 table companies. “We’ve outlived any other dealer in New York City. "We’re an icon in New York City," Bruce says, matter of factly. Then getting it there.” So online referrals aren't just about the lumber-all acquired in North America, save for exotic woods obtained from around the world-but about customer service, too. What size? What material? Creating a customer order. Before you make the sale, you must find what they want. "We set up a table in Utah last week on a Saturday at 9 am," Jeff adds.
We know that those tables, the way they were crafted, have lasted 100-plus years.” Then there’s shipping the product. “I would say that our construction technique is mirrored after the way the antiques were produced. Getting it to its destination-some 9,512 miles from New Jersey to Singapore-will add another $10,000 to $15,000.Īre these models the best made tables in the world? “We certainly strive for that,” says Bruce Roeder, Jeff’s father. This Brunswick model, constructed of quartersawn oak and adorned with brown leather pockets, goes for $68,000. Jeff points to a four-and-a-half-by-nine relic, ready to be crated and sent to Singapore. The table pieces-legs, rails, and frames with colorful marquetry-cram in, leaning against one another. Bolts of cloth are rolled tight like outsized sausages, each secured with thick string. Aisles upon aisles of table parts are loaded on shelves. Here lie some 3,000 tables, spanning every style from every decade over the last 150 years. This vast stretch of century old tables, shoehorned into 48,000 square feet of high-ceilinged space, offers a clear window into Blatt Billiards' past, back to 1923 when it first opened its doors in Manhattan, doing business as Sam Blatt and Sons. The Roeder family took over the firm and kept the Blatt name. Jeff is the chief of technology and marketing at Blatt Billiards. Only here you get to walk off with the art. "I call it functional art," says Jeff Roeder, gazing up at the stacked antiques. These tables are just biding their time, awaiting adoption and a change of location to someone’s home. The woods run the gamut: from white oak to elm burl, from Makassar ebony to endless varieties of mahogany. Nonpareil Novelty table from 1874, constructed of dark rosewood with bird’s eye maple marquetry inlays. Here is an 1880 Pfister model made of maple wood. Enter the Blatt Billiards showroom and warehouse in Woodridge, New Jersey, and your eyes will drift upward to the wooden frames of antique pool tables, stacked one on another, climbing to the ceiling.
0 kommentar(er)
