Handmade Surfaces
Want a floor with the footworn look of an 18th-century Boston tavern? Or maybe the rough-sawn flooring surface found in a pre-Civil War cotton warehouse? Or maybe just the softly worn appeal of a fine old Cape Cod floor from Colonial New England?
Our Custom Shop can recreate these and many more centuries-old looks with a variety of handmade surface treatments, each bringing its own distinctive character to a floor. These include hand-scraped, hand-planed, foot-worn, saw kerf, hit or miss, and wire brushed. Two or more of these treatments can be combined for an even more one-of-a-kind look.
Although these surface treatments lend themselves especially well to our FSC Reclaimed Antique Woods, they can also be applied to any and all of our newly sawn woods with dramatic results. And while some might think that they are only appropriate for older homes and rustic cabins, today you’ll find that our Custom Shop Handmade Surfaces have created compelling focal points in the most traditional and modern environments.
| Hand-Scraped: This look is somewhat similar to Hand-Planed, but is achieved with scraping rather than planing tools. The result is a more primitive look. Carlisle boards can be ordered with Hand-Scraped Surfaces, Hand Scraped Edges or both. View more |  |
| Hand-Scraped Edge: Our craftspeople gently scrape the edges of each board by hand to recreate the centuries-old process of smoothing the roughness of each board. View more |  |
| Hand-Planed: Many early colonists planed their floorboards by hand in order to smooth out the rough-sawn surfaces. Carlisle uses similar tools to authentically recreate these distinctive flowing planing marks. View more |  |
| Saw-Kerf: Until modern milling techniques were applied, boards from early sawmills contained saw swirl markings or “kerfs”. Our Custom Shop authentically recreates this look. The kerf marks will absorb stain differently and create striking contrasts. View more |  |
| Hit or Miss: A more subtle version of our Saw Kerf treatment in that the saw swirl patterns vary from slight to prominent. View more |  |
| Footworn: As floors are walked on, the softer grains are worn away more quickly than the denser grains, creating distinctive undulating patterns. Also, if boards are uneven in height, the taller boards will show more foot wear. Using custom tools, our craftsmen recreate these subtle patterns typical of Colonial floors that have been trod upon for centuries. View more |  |
| Wire-Brushed: This is our most subtle surface treatment. Using wire brushes, craftsmen de-gloss and “un-smooth” our boards in order to give them a soft and gently worn texture with very fine brush markings. This technique can be combined easily with any of our other surface treatments with dramatic results. View more |  |
Country Road in Autumn
New Hampshire