" Brian, what are the different types of wood, the different species that are being used for all these cabinets that you make here?"

" Well Bob, we used a lot of different woods. If you take a look over here, you'll see that we used quarter sawn white oak. It's been the favorite by furniture makers for many, many years."

" Yeah. There is the distinctive gray that you get with quarter sawn and the easy explanation is that the round log is split into quarters and then boarded out, that's why you get that grain."

" That gives you a great look and also a very stable wood."

" Yeah. And so once it's finished, this is the look that you get. And they're the quarter sawn grain shows up again. Alright, so you got quarter sawn oak and then what's this?"

" This happens to be Appalachian cherry right here. This is one of the more popular things that we do."

" Cherry is always the real favorite."

" So when this finished it looks like----like this door sample here."

" This is an example of finished cherry."

" And again, that's one of the most favorite wood used in kitchen cabinets these days. And then what's behind you here?"

" Behind me right here, this is a----this is mahogany and this is a very nice wood. It's very wide and very stable."

" Mahogany is a terrific wood to work with."

" It's a great work----ah wood to work with."

" But it's not a domestic wood. It's imported from where?"

" It is a Honduras mahogany."

" Okay. Central America."

" And people ask, is that from the rainforest? Absolutely not."

" And----"

" There is an example of what it looks like when it's completely finished."

" Yeah. You know, it's very elegant and useful not just in kitchens, but also in"

" Now, each kitchen is a custom-designed and a custom-order, how do you go about maximizing----making these boxes out of the plywood? "

" Well, we do it on a couple of different machines. We have a machine that is basically an overhead router. It's a CNC ah machine and----"

" What does CNC mean?"

" Ahh, Computer Numeric Control."

" There you go."

" And basically the gentlemen that do the CAD work for us in the office will design the very custom, custom-cabinets, the one with the angles in it and the corners and they will create a program and they will download to the machine and the machine will run that entire sheet. You'll put a 4 X 8 sheet of cherry plywood as an example."

" Yes."

" And it will run the entire sheet and it will make all the cuts and make probably dadoes and it will drill for shelf pegs and that's how to make----"

" Once on the boxes, they are assembled. You gotta make the doors, right? And that's why we're using the hardwood. What's the first step here?"

" Well, the first step is to come over to the shop saw. You will select a board like this, this very lumber you see here, you will cut it for the length that you just defined to cut it to, to a max of grain."

" So this is all a visual matching?"

" That's correct."

" And then of course, they've gotta get jointed and what happens? Glue them up?"

" After they're jointed, they're pushed over and they're glued up on our large glue clamp rack."

" Once you've got them all glued up and you have to shape them right?"

" That's correct. If that went, what we do is we take them to a high-speed profile cutter, that when you put them through and put a nice double edge on it and it could be erased then."

" And here, he is in the process of gluing the frames themselves. And this is just like you'd do it in your own workshop, but then the panel just floats in the frame."

" That's correct. The staples actually holding it nice and tight and if the panel decides to expand, it can."

" Now what's the next step?"

" Actually the next step is, it's then gonna be machine-sanded and then the hand-sanding because if you're gonna get a real furniture quality finished, you've gotta finish-sand every single piece."

" Most of the cabinets get a natural finish, right?"

" That's correct, staying in natural."

" Okay. And that's what these women are doing over here."

" That's correct, everything is hand-stained."

" But what about the painted finishes that becomes so popular now and some of these colors are amazing."

" Well, I appreciate that Bob. One of the things that we do that a lot of people don't do is the old-fashioned, melt-painted finish, and it's a finish that's been around for hundreds of years and it's applied with a brush and coated, sanded, coated, sanded, and coated in multiple steps."

" And then you have to put a seal around it, right?"

" That's correct. It's very durable, but it still needs an oven baked sealer and oven baked popcorn."

" And this is basically lactose and lime; I mean it really is milk that's in the equation, right?"

" Exactly, what they do. That's correct."