Epoxy river table debate. Bourbon Moth vs. Blacktail Studio. (March 2022) 

I like epoxy because of the ability to use wood that maybe once was garbage and couldn't be used. Now, you can fill knots and voids with something interesting and have a stable project that still features the grain and character of the wood. Saves a lot of wood from going to the burn pile.

This is an epic podcast episode. Cam and Jason are 2 HUGE inspirations for me. Awesome to see them both in one space chatting. Hilarious stuff in here.

Thanks, Guys, that was a brilliant way to spend 51:31. I am stuck in bed with the dreaded man flu (influenza) and came across this great river table debate. some of it looks good, but other stuff looks horrible (cr*p). Not something I want in my house. In answer to why one should watch Jason's channel. Like I said, I have flu and his dry, almost monotone voice on a previous build was so soothing to my aches and pains, that I fell asleep peacefully. Don't take it the wrong way; you all have your merits, and I enjoy every minute of your channels. I have dreams, hopes, and desires to build something someday. In the meantime, all I do is refinish someone else's projects. Gives me a huge amount of pleasure to take a shiny piece of furniture remove all the high gloss lacquer and end up with a raw, waxed piece of furniture, the way nature intended wood to be. Keep up the good content. Greetings from Sunny South Africa. Regards Curt The Handy Capable Handy Man ♿

I like both woodworking shows. This whole thing about river tables is just crazy. It’s a personal preference thing!

I love how Jason is in the shadows in a closeup like he's the devil on your shoulder lol

Honestly, I never knew anything about epoxy tables until I got the recommendation for Cam’s page. And truly in the same amount of time. Cam and Jason have become 2 of my favorite channels. I respect them both. And depending on the day I will watch one or the other or both. But Steve you are my man. You are the Godfather of Woodworking for me! So you 3 are on my top woodworking lists. And if you like tanner it’s explosions like that DEMOLITION RANCH

Great episode, especially since I follow all 3 of you individually. You just need to add JKM, Stumpy Nubs & Matt Estlea.

This was hilarious, I follow both you guys and like your content. Great craftsmanship and you help folks out with several good tips.

Great interview, I really liked it as I have followed both channels (including yours Steve) for a long time. One thing they kind of talked briefly about but could've been mentioned more is the people who want to get into furniture making but don't have yet skills and tools for it. Buying cheap slabs and doing epoxy-thingie with it is really easy, doesn't require a lot of expensive tools, but it'll still require learning how to sand, how to level the table, how to finish, how to use router for edges etc. My very first builds about a year ago were ugly, simple, hair pinned leg style epoxy tables but they really were the spark for me to start learning and nowadays, even though I've been building less than a year I'm already working on much more advanced stuff without any epoxy in the tables. So it's a great, easy entry, way of getting into woodworking. Maybe not the most beautiful pieces but doing joinery & glue ups as a beginner is scary and hard - I'm doing them now, but if I'd started my fist builds by buying 1000 EUR/USD wood and trying to do joinery and glue ups without the tools and skills and messing it up and the whole thing ending up in my sauna as firewood I would've ended my woodworking journey very quickly. Initial success with simple epoxy tables gave way for me to evolve as a woodworker.

I follow you both, great content and information. Retiring i one month, a metal craftsman, settting up a woodshop, coming for you, metal and wood. Keep teaching me.

A long time subscriber of all 3 & loved all their works! Love to see all of them in 1 video 👍😁

I’ve been working with epoxy and wood here in Texas since 2005..Our favorite wood is mesquite. And filling defects in the wood, i. e. cracks, knots, etc., with turquoise granules. It's very popular here. I love your work. We have black walnut here but not the size and quality you have.

This was awesome! Thanks Steve!!

Jason, looks like you need to put up some trim in that room. Maybe you could make 1x4 river-trim out of epoxy 🤔

All my favorites in one video? Thanks Steve for this!

This was great! Deserves so many more views.

Best…episode…..ever. Thanks for getting this convo together. IMO a trend, epoxy will always have its place. But no way one of these things will ever be center place in my living room. Cool desk in the den? Sure.

I just started making jason epoxy tables and I love them. Thanks Bourbon Moth for the invention!

i love river tables!! You can make really nice pallets out of them!

Epoxy is plastic, and when I use it I try and stay away from sanding it, so accents is where I use it, at the lathe it’s the worst, all my shavings have to go to the land fill instead of the garden

In regards to a epoxy being a possible fad/trend… I agree with Jason, the extreme colors and glittery powders, while fascinating in my opinion, are really going to fade for major furniture items like tables. Now they will always be a cool way to express cutting boards or charcuterie boards, but it’s more acceptable for those to be accent prices with more flair. Tables will regress to something more of the black resin like Cam uses, and that classic look should stick around as long as people want custom tables. Black and a few other colors are usually timeless.

This. Was. Great!

What I am liking about this conversation is the men can smack talk eachother and not end up getting their undies in a wad over their differences.

This was great! 2 of my favorite woodworkers… Cam gets so much hate.

Live edge furniture should be 100% organic.

I am glad epoxy exists so people like BM Sculptures can make beautiful art!

i've followed both of you and like both styles, both require imagination and creativity

#1 reason to not use epoxy, cost. For someone on a budget like myself, I'd rather put the money into tools or more wood to work with. Certainly need to spend a lot to get into epoxy and make mistakes. No customer is going to pay you to practice. That said, I would love to try making an epoxy table since you can do some super creative things with it.

Not sure how I missed this video, but, nonetheless "subscribed" so I don't miss another. Every single moment/video they talked about, I was like, yeap, I've watched that one. Yeap, I've watched that one. Yeap, that one too. I've watched more than I realized. This was an "entertaining" video. Now, back to work.

River tables where it looks like water I can understand but using epoxy to fill in voids and use beautiful pieces of wood that are too small for a full table top can make beautiful tops when black epoxy is used. I use a lot of reclaimed barnwood and I don’t want to get rid of too much material i use epoxy to keep it.

I'm in the middle of the two... But I appreciate that epoxy allows you to work with incredible slabs... The epoxy is just the process that allows for the use of those slabs

You can eat it lol you can't eat wood either dude. You can't eat glue, you can't eat metal hardware.

I recently started doing woodworking and honestly epoxy intimidate me a little bit. Its mistakes are difficult and very expensive to fix so I am only using it fill it knots and cracks. I personally dont have anything against the looks of it but if it predominantly epoxy, I feel its waste of money. I have seen some makers are not really paying any attention to form and placement of wood slabs within epoxy and it looks really strange.

I like river table. For exact: Matt Estlea version. :)

this was really interesting

Great conversation, and great guests! Side note, Jason is clearly doing the Blair witch project, and Cam reminds me of Freddy. I mean, Steve is a huge horror movie fan…

Personally I like the feel of wood. Not plastic. I don't think you will see many in the future

I usually agree with Jason's woodworking and design takes, but his take on vibrant color in tables has me convinced that he's never heard of an accent color

Who is the chemist and who is the WOODWORKER ? ? ? If you mix a handful of saw dust with epoxy ... is it a wooden table

I'm late to the party on this one, and making a comment BEFORE watching. Wood moves a lot more than plastic, and I would imagine that would be even more pronounced on a massive river table-- yet in the five years I've been watching people make them, I've never seen a video where Cam or John Malecki or Chris Salomone go, "Well-- THIS happened..." while showing a a river table with a massive crack.

most of the slabs being used for epoxy tables cant be used as dimensional lumber. the hardwood dealer told me 10 years ago most of them had to be thrown out or burned. someone finally figured out how to turn the rotted cracked wood and make something nice out of it.

I like the way Cam does the epoxy wood mix especially when he uses the black epoxy. To me he has taken very beautiful and interesting wood with inconvenient shapes and found a way to display the wood, in a black epoxy background. I think that is great where the wood is the centre and the epoxy is the background the woods beauty is displayed against. However river tables the epoxy is the centre and the wood is the background. Looks tacky after a while. Cams style is far superior to others I have seen.

Jason's foreman needs to give him a raise, he does a great job

Fun!

In my opinion, it is a question of where to use epoxy. In the art/design of a piece, is epoxy the right medium and what percentage is it used? In some circumstances, epoxy can save a beautiful piece of wood that can be a part of the final design. Purple tables are just bad design! 😂

Bourbon moth guy - neon colors in epoxy is a big turn off, agreed. Cam, I was going to make the same point you did about what finish? after the goopy comment - its just with Rubio, its a lot less material - but it is goopy!

👍

Why is called a pod cast? I have an iPad 😂😂

The beauty of wood is more then it’s look. It’s that something from nature can be used to improve our lives in lasting and practical ways. It’s the feel it’s the smell, it’s the harmony it’s the utility. In an epoxy table the wood is just the filler. It could be shoes or erasers or anything. No different then those souvenir scorpions. It’s not a wooden table. It’s a plastic table. It’s nearly as silly as making a wooden table out vinyl flooring and calling it woodworking. Black tail makes beautiful stuff but I wish he was more creative and came up with ways and to free the wood instead of drown it in plastic.

I had to skip to the end!!! I thought my two favorite makers, and even from my area, were actual enemies… frenemies I can live with!! ….actual enemies😭

Very very little black epoxy in some cracks is good, which not cover the wood touch

The thumbnail lmao

If you complain with the price of lumber, how many ounces of epoxy would you need to do a 2"x4"x8' (768 cubic inches), 1.8 cubic inches per ounces = 426 ounces = 3 gallon. At over 100$ per gallon, it will be 300$ for a 2x4 made of epoxy. Go to your local lumberyard, and tell them you are willing to pay 300$ for a 2x4, and ask what type of wood that will that be ? Going for a low cost entry to the craft, epoxy is the total opposite of it. Whether you like epoxy made product or not, in most case, slab which are used by Blacktail studio, could not be used for lumber. Do I like victorian furniture ? no. Do I appreciate the skillset to make one ? yes. How many youtuber have made victorian furniture vs have made a workbench ?

People don’t like what they don’t understand … there’s a move towards live edge epoxy furniture right now .i know most of cams tables are the same and over charged but he must be doing something right .it’s not jasons cup of tea ….who cares I think Jason’s jealous 😩

2 of my favorite wood workers fighting over an opinion. smh. why cant people build what they like?

The way Jason feels about river tables is how I feel about the ridiculous ripped jeans fashion. Epoxy is good as an adhesive and as a sealer, but a big NO to river tables.

I can’t be the only one noticing Cam’s eyes…?

Jason's furniture is awesome unlike anything made of epoxy I am sorry but I agree with everything he has said there is a place for epoxy but not in furniture.

Cam is at the top of his game Bourbon Moth isn’t there are 100’s of better You Tube craftsmen out there such as Foureyes and Pudulla Studio just to name a few.

It's all epoxy projects-😹😹😹😹

I really hate that Baroque style. It won’t stand the test of time.

Epoxy is anti wood

I agree with Jason! It is a fad.

Can't trust a woodworker with no beard. Who is he, Lex Luthor? Go Hibby! @Bourbonmoth

Jason: Woodworker, craftsman, skilled, respectful, funny, humble Cam: Mediocre, bad taste (music, politics, furniture), influencer, no beard

Politics right out of the gate. Lame.