Accessories

Steve Revland Mastering Splinters

The man behind the furniture
By Andrew Jason
Photos by J. Alan Paul

Steve Revland has been designing and crafting fine custom made furniture for the last 35 years. He has marketed his handcrafted chairs, tables and consoles worldwide. He is a true artist and creates some of the most unique furniture in the area. We learned a few things about the man behind the furniture.


Fun Facts About Steve

Before he began designing furniture Revland was an actively performing musician. He even cut his own record from when he was performing around town in the late sixties and early seventies.

Revland was featured on HGTV about 10 years ago. You can see the segment on his website, steverevland.com.

In 2008, after a distinguished 37 year career, Revland was inducted into the North Dakota Softball Hall of Fame. He played shortstop for two different teams in five different decades.

  • How He Got Started
    “I had no skill set when it came to woodworking so I bought a book on building birdhouses. I was just going to putz around for a while and one thing led to another… From 1976 and on about all I’ve done is build furniture”.
  • When His Love Was Born
    “My parents had unwittingly allowed me to build a wood lathe in the basement. I was in the third grade. As a child I was twirling the spindles on the wood lathe. That caught my attention and so did the lovely aroma. I was making things on that wood lathe that I fashioned out of a washing machine motor… I did that when I was nine.” (Laughs)
  • The Work He Does
    “I make a living building custom furniture for my residential clients. My art pieces are maybe 20 percent of my business while 80 percent of my business is going into homes, designing, then creating office and bedroom furniture, as well as entertainment centers and dining room sets. That will never change.”
  • The Future Of Steve Revland
    “I see myself reverting back to solid wood furniture. I’ve been in contact with exotic hardwood dealers from New Zealand to California, Florida and South Carolina, all looking at different species of solid wood.”
  • Largest Project He’s Ever Worked On
    “The Tree of Life” sculpture at Olivet Lutheran Church. Revland helped create this piece. It weighs over 1,100 pounds, is 15 feet tall and is made from Olive Wood from Jerusalem.

You can find out more about Steve Revland at his website, steverevland.com.

Steve knows wood

Revland is not only an expert on designing and building furniture, but he’s also an expert on different types of wood. He has worked with hundreds of different types of solids and veneers. These are a few of his favorite.

  • Black Mottled Makore – The grain variation and color is beautiful on this African wood. Light will create different effects on it that makes the wood almost seem alive.
  • Movingui – This is also known as Nigerian satin wood. Revland likes to combine this with Makore. If you visit his studio in north Fargo, there’s a piece by Revland that features legs made from Movingui wood and the top from Makore wood. The color is good but it doesn’t have the same wild grain of Makore.
  • Mozambique – This is an African wood that resembles Teak or Walnut. This is a highly figured wood that has some very cool and wild grains and lines in the wood.
  • Maccassar Ebony – All the lines in this wood are natural. There are a variety of Ebony trees out there. Some are solid black but the Maccassar tree has these orangish-yellowish stripes that make it much more appealing.
  • Anegre – This African wood has some fun raised grain too it. Besides that, it closely resembles Cherry.

 

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