Quote Originally Posted by drcollie View Post
A Concept can transfer but a Pattern cannot. You can tweak a pattern slightly but usually it requires a new one unless the piece is a recreation of one previously made. Commissioning a one-of-a kind is never inexpensive, all that design work gets amortized into just a single piece.

I have Jonathan Charles in my store and its not bad, almost all the wood furniture is made in Vietnam. It's not even close to a hand-made creation by John Buchanan. That's real art - in the best wood.
Ah yes, & there's the conundrum: why buy a "beautiful" piece that's just standard production line furniture, when for a bit more you can have both a beautiful piece AND a work of art? Lol, I didn't always use to think like this. I used to be of the mindset that if it looked good & came from a reputable brand, then what the hell...let's get it!!

Now, after doing more research into the history of decorative arts & what makes a piece special, as well as the key things to look for in a quality made piece, my outlook has totally done a 180°.

I see a lot of the examples of John's work here on the forum have been done in tiger maple, which is beautiful, but not really along the lines of what I'm envisioning. I've always preferred mahogany, olive wood, burl walnut & satinwood. I'm not opposed to considering possibly using a less expensive base wood with a high quality veneer(of the woods I mentioned,) to achieve the look. So, with that said: does John typically work with any of the above mentioned woods? Would specifying the piece be done in any of those woods add or subtract from the price of a similarly made piece in tiger maple? I've read the Wood Basics thread, but many of these higher end production level furniture makers are featuring pieces in mahogany, burl walnut, satinwood, etc. I've not seen a single piece of tiger maple anywhere before until discovering the forum & still have only seen it in those pieces showcased here...I may be totally wrong here; but, that's lead me to believe the tiger maple is actually the more rare wood. And as such, more expensive. I may be missing them, but I haven't seen a mahogany or burl walnut piece from Treharn or Buchanan & that's why I ask

I'll look around some more & try to narrow it down to something that's more or so 90% of what I have in mind before further adding to your load with a John Buchanan quote, LOL! I've browsed thru almost all of JC's collections looking for a modern styled chest featuring these period details...so far, I've yet to find anything in particular.

I saw a Treharn chest in tiger maple from @ '10 that was closer to the JC price range, yet it was a Treharn piece slightly modified; NOT, a one-off. I know you use Buchanan for most of your custom work because it is awe inspiring!! I'd love a custom, American benchmade Buchanan piece JUST for the appreciation I have for his passion that's evident in his work. This is a difficult one to decide on: gorgeous & wallet friendly? Or, drop dead amazingly beautiful with a bigger hit to the wallet?