Machining

Machining is the phase where the material takes the shape of the drawing: cutting to length, drilling, tapping, milling, turning, bending and rolling of profiles. In high-end furniture these operations have a particularity that sets them apart from industrial engineering: almost every machined surface will remain visible, so the quality of the cut and of the chip is not only a dimensional matter — it is already an aesthetic one.

Brass machines well but it is soft: it marks, it takes an impression, and a badly chosen clamping arrangement leaves a print that no later finish fully recovers. So we always work on two levels at once — how to hold the piece in tolerance and how not to damage it while holding it. Protected jaws, clean supports, an order of operations designed to reduce repositioning: none of this appears on the drawing, and all of it decides the outcome.

Tolerances are concentrated where they are needed. A piece of furniture does not need everything to be tight: it needs the interfaces to be precise — where components mate, where a screw goes, where a glass or a top rests. Stating which dimensions are critical, and which are not, is the most effective way of keeping cost where it belongs.

Bending deserves a note of its own, because it is irreversible and because it works on the outer surface: the radius is chosen for the material and the thickness, and on a satin finish the direction of the bend relative to the grain changes the visual result. This too is decided beforehand, not after.

The phase ends with a set of components ready to be joined: cut to size, deburred, with visible surfaces protected and with the references that welding and assembly will need already on the piece. Burrs are removed before the finish and not after, because a live edge cuts whoever assembles it and, under paint, leaves a dark line that shows the moment light catches it sideways.