Starting in the mill room, raw lumber begins its transformation into fine furniture. Boards of varying lengths and thickness are cut and processed using operations such as gluing, veneering, sanding, bandsawing and polishing. These components then travel to the finish mill where more detailed, complicated procedures such as routing, tenoning, turning on a lathe, moulding, machine carving, dovetailing or shaping are performed.

These parts then go to the cabinet room where construction begins. Machine carved parts are completely reworked by Karges' hand carvers. All carving required in the construction of your furniture was done by the same carver because carving, like hand-painting, is an art; and, no two artists' work is identical.

After assembly, the piece is prepared to finish. This cleaning process corrects imperfections by patching and sanding making the furniture as smooth and perfect as wood can be.

Our finishing process involves 18-23 hand-applied, slow, labor intensive steps. A peroxide bleach bath to remove some of the dark, natural wood color begins the finish process followed with a sap stain application to equalize wood colors within a piece. We then apply an overall body stain which imparts the underlying color for your particular finish. Subsequent steps of adding color and enhancing grain character are alternated with many coats of lacquer. Careful sanding between color operations and lacquer coats assures intercoat adhesion and an adequate finish build. When the final coat of lacquer dries, the furniture is hand rubbed to bring out the depth and clarity of the natural wood grain which has been enhanced by all the carefully executed finish steps.

When your furniture passes final inspection, the Karges emblem is proudly attached. Although the history of your furniture ends here at Karges, it is only the beginning with you as a source of pride and enjoyment in your home for many years.