Project Spotlight: Crafting Custom Barrel Stave Coasters for Pappy & Company
Every woodworker loves a good reclaimed material story, but working with authentic bourbon barrel staves comes with a unique set of challenges. When our friends at Pappy & Company approached us with a surplus of white oak barrel staves from a previous run, they wanted to give that historic wood a second life.
The goal: engineer and manufacture a run of roughly 300 custom geometric coasters designed specifically to pair with their glasses.
Here is a look behind the scenes at how we transformed rough, curved, deeply charred bourbon barrel wood into functional tabletop art.
The Challenge: Taming the Stave
Authentic bourbon barrels are charred on the inside to caramelize the wood sugars and infuse flavor into the whiskey over years of aging. Because barrels are round, every single stave arrives with a compound curve, irregular thickness, and varying degrees of deep “alligator” char.
Turning curved, stressed stock into flat, uniform coasters meant careful prep work:
Selective Milling: We planed the blanks to establish flat reference faces without cutting away all the rich patina and history. As the planer passed over each stave, it revealed stunning quartersawn white oak grain surrounding islands of dark, deep-charred timber.
Maximizing Yield: We dimensioned the boards to ensure we could yield three full-sized coasters per stave segment with minimal scrap.
Precision Machining: The Center Pivot
The standout feature of the Pappy & Company glassware is its spinning base. The tumbler balances on a central point, allowing whiskey lovers to swirl and aerate their pour with a gentle nudge.
To make this work seamlessly on a coaster, the wood needed a perfectly positioned, glass-smooth spherical recess right in the center.
Custom Fixturing: Using our CNC router, we built a dedicated vacuum-and-screw holddown spoilboard fixture capable of running multiple stave blanks in parallel.
3D Profiling & Chamfers: The machine carved out the clean hexagonal perimeter, chamfered outer edges, and carved the hemispherical pocket designed to cradle the spinning glass smoothly.
Finishing & Final Details
Once cut free from the blanks, each coaster was individually processed:
Detail Sanding: Hand-sanding the faceted edges and polishing the inner dish to eliminate tool marks while keeping crisp geometric lines.
Protective Finish: White oak is naturally rot-resistant, but condensation from cold glassware demands extra defense. We applied a mineral oil coating to protect and enhance the final look.
The Finished Set
The resulting coasters capture the best of both worlds: precision digital fabrication paired with century-old American distilling heritage. Paired with Pappy & Company’s etched glassware, each coaster provides a steady, spinning foundation for a favorite pour.
Looking to create custom branded products, bespoke barware, or precision small-batch woodwork for your brand? Reach out to Open Grain to discuss your project.