As they were found.
Black Friday…
I’m not normally one to do any shopping, especially on Black Friday. I was coaxed out by a lumber mill boasting a Black Friday sale. Apart from their dimensional lumber, they had numerous dried live edge slabs. Among them were these two oddballs. A slight error at the saw made them them a little thin, with planes not parallel, and some false starts with the saw. On top of all that, they had dried with a twist. The rest of the tree had sold, and these two were left behind, perfect additions to my shop of misfits.
A project big enough to command the entire shop…
A lot of time went into these two cuts. At 6 feet apart, they needed to be perfectly parallel.
Either end of the table needed to have a perfectly flat, matched area to create the sliding dovetail joints. This required a large surfacing tool to be built.
4 dovetail cuts were required, two per side. All perfectly parallel, two of them 6ft apart. A new level of precision for my shop.
This is the first test fit with the dovetails, tight and solid! Ash was chosen for the rails and legs, because of its strength and complimentary color.
Rails cut and shaped for trestle Table service, all glued up. This joint will be one of only 2 uses of glue on this entire table.
The legs make their first appearance. These are designed to be removed for shipment, yet will contain no screws.
A live edge stretcher. This is a wormy slab that was deemed too perforated for use as a tabletop. It’s going to look amazing as second fiddle to the tabletop.
All the pieces are in place! All that’s needed now are the pinning and staking parts that hold it all together.
Butterflies in place, ash chosen to match the sapwood color.
An entire 12 hour day was needed to surface this table. Getting the saw marks, twist, and bowing out of it produced enough shavings and dust to fill a garbage can. Time well spent!
The second and final gluing operation; Feet to the legs. This needed done after surfacing to ensure the table stood flat and level.
Finishing the bottom first, so the top can be done without fear or drips and runs. Look at the difference that clear poly makes in the appearance.
After flipping, the top gets its knots filled and is sanded down to 320gr. A great core and cardio workout!
The first application of finish is my favorite part of the job. The wood grain bursts into life as it drinks it in!
After a couple more weeks of building the layers and sanding with ultra-fine paper, and this will be smooth as glass yet not cold to the eye like bar-top epoxy.
I have an aversion to epoxy use; plastic should never be the focal point of a wooden table. To fill the void, made a removable insert. Aspen was used, scorched in the Shou Sugi Ban style. This deep black doesn’t draw the eye, and lets the walnut do the talking.