Ryan Kutter, Lead Woodworker

Woodworking is not normally thought of as representational art. Woodworkers do strive to design forms that are graceful, useful, and relate well to other architectural elements, but they are not usually asked to convey an idea.

Nearly two years ago, President Brian Bruess and his wife Carol asked our shop to design a 16’ dining table for their new home in Saint Joseph, Minnesota. This house is not a typical residence, but the home of the first joint President of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University.

Brian and Carol asked that this dining table represent the deep integration of CSB and SJU that is signaled by a joint presidency and that crowns the efforts of several generations to find more and better ways for the two institutions to work together while respecting their distinct histories and roles in educating men and women.

The design process began by  searching out architectural symbols and places of meaning on both campuses that could be incorporated into the table. With input from SJU alum and UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design graduate Matt Palmquist, a support structure (the table legs) was adapted from the Trees of Knowledge in the SJU Alcuin Library. These massive, multi-limbed trunks were designed by architect Marcel Breuer and have sheltered studious students since the 1960s.

For the table top, our designers took their inspiration from the predella in the Sacred Heart Chapel at Saint Benedict’s Monastery. At the center of this oval shaped plateau stands the altar, the focal point of prayer, reflection, and celebration for the monastic community as well as students and faculty.

With a great idea (the hard part), we came to the easy part for the woodworkers. At Saint John’s Abbey Woodworking, this means we first had to send someone into the forest to find the right tree. Saint John’s Abbey Forester John Geissler identified a white oak that contained enough long and clear lumber for this 16’ table. After harvesting the appropriate tree, Geissler counted between 160 and 180 year-rings. They indicate that this tree began its life here just as the monks and sisters started to arrive in Central Minnesota.

Most logs are milled into boards by an Amish mill near Long Prairie. In this case, however, we invited our friend Jeff Thompson to bring his portable sawmill on site to mill this special tree. Jeff is particularly skilled at seeing the full potential of a log, avoiding problems, and taking the time to turn the log this way and that to get the best possible stretches of lumber.

After the boards were lifted from the mill they were carefully spaced and left to air dry in our lumberyard for a full year. This slow drying of the boards was then followed by a brief time in the kiln to bring the boards to their appropriate moisture content level.

At this point we were on familiar ground, negotiating the boards through jointers, planers, and table-saws, looking for grain patterns and colors to match or keep away from each other. One particular challenge of the tabletop was the size. Moving or machining 16’ boards, especially when they were assembled into a single top, always required the joint efforts of three to five woodworkers.

One of the tools we recently acquired for the new woodworking shop expanded the possibilities for design and accuracy. Moreover, Mark Matters, an organ builder who programs and operates our CNC router table, helped us think of ways to lay out and cut the expansive oval table top and the intricate branches of the trees of knowledge.

With the trees and table top ready for assembly, we needed to confirm that we had met the basic requirements of a piece of furniture. A large table like this works best if people aren’t hitting their knees and scraping their chairs against the table legs and base. Furthermore, would this thing stand up? We agreed that the idea of wide branching trees with a narrow base was great, but might table tip over, let’s say, during an especially enthusiastic dinner party?  Fortunately the tenons held, the foot of the table did not wobble, and the table top remained as still and flat as the water of Lake Sagatagan on a calm autumn day.

White oak is known for its strength, resistance to rotting, and a creamy color with touches of darkness. To complement many of the existing architectural elements in the Renner House, which are generally light in color, we decided on a fumed finish for the table that would naturally darken the wood without obscuring the grain. We achieved this type of finish by placing the table in a sealed tent and exposing the wood to concentrations of ammonia. The natural concentrations of iron and tannins in white oak react to the ammonia fumes by darkening  and enriching the grain patterns. While we have treated smaller objects with ammonia, working with such a large table was a challenge. Our organ building friends had successfully treated large casework in this way and coached us in building a tent to hold in the ammonia fumes. The final coloration, a rich creamy brown, was coated with several layers of protective finish to provide durability over the decades.

It was an honor for our shop to participate in promoting the strong integration of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University. Dialogue is an essential element of any effort to work together and to build together. Finding our better selves by gathering around a common table and then working together to bring our shared vision to reality is the ideal we wanted to convey by designing and building a table for the home of the new and first joint President of CSB+SJU.

Many thanks to Tom Morris and his team at CBS+SJU Marketing and Communication for providing the beautiful pictures from the installation and blessing.