What’s the difference between Live Edge and Milled Edge?

What is a Live Edge table?

What is a Milled Edge table?

These are all great questions, and I hope to answer them all.

At Loewen Design Studios we offer 6 standard edges to your wood table, and we’ll work through all of those, but let’s start with Live Edge. 

Live Edge 

A Live Edge table is a wood table where the long edge (typically) is the edge of that tree. To begin with, all our tables are made with solid hardwood, which means they’re all pieces of trees stuck together. Most of those pieces are from the inside of a tree, with the outside of the tree cut off. Live Edge, however, is a wood table where that edge doesn’t get cut off, and you can see the natural shape of the tree. The bark is removed, and it gets sanded a little to keep everything fairly smooth, but it is the actual shape of the tree.

Milled Edge

By contrast, when we say a Milled Edge, we mean everything else. Anything where the edge of the table has been cut with a saw, where it’s not quite the way nature made it.

Milled Edges are more consistent. We’re pretty good with a saw, and so they end up basically identical every time. Live edges are as consistent as nature makes them. We pick planks that we think look good, but it won’t match the picture as well as a Milled Edge will. 

Check out our edge options here!