Method for making a pipe-shaped body of wood

A method for manufacturing furniture products from a substantially annular pipe-shaped body made of a number of wood staves, comprising the steps of:

• selecting a number of substantially straight wood staves having substantially parallel longitudinal edges, substantially parallel faces, and a predetermined length, width and thickness,
• furnishing each said face with substantially parallel inner and outer surfaces each having a curvature transverse to said longitudinal edges, said curvatures corresponding to said number of wood staves and to the radius of said pipe-shaped body,
• providing each said longitudinal edge with a complementary tongue and groove pattern adapted to mate with the tongue and groove pattern of an adjacent stave, said pattern having a series of mutually undulating grooves and oppositely slanting and radially projecting tongues,
• coating said tongues and grooves with an adhesive,
• assembling said staves in a cradle-like mounting means, wherein the tongues and grooves of each stave are brought into direct perpendicular engagement with the tongues and grooves of an adjacent stave, the engagement of said staves together forming the pipe-shaped body, the final stave being brought into position by separating the second to last stave and its next adjacent stave until the space defined between them opens to receive the final stave and then firmly closes around said final stave, thereby completing the pipe-shaped body,
• clamping said assembled staves to stabilize the pipe-shaped body and allow the adhesive to cure,
• releasing said pipe-shaped body from clamping,
• working the internal and external surfaces of the pipe-shaped body,
• cutting at least one pair of cylindrical hollow bodies from the pipe-shaped body along a predetermined continuously arcuate and non-planar path to form at least one pair of furniture blanks, both blanks of said pair having a contoured edge of substantially the same shape in the vicinity of the cut, and finishing at least one of said blanks to provide a furniture product.