Mettes sister turned 50 this year, and her husband asked me some time ago if I could make a table for her birthday.
They have recently bought a summer house and wanted a slab table of sorts.
I showed him some pictures of the tabletop I made a couple of years ago, and some pictures of the Barnsley hayrake tables that I have made. and he confirmed that it was something along those lines that he would like to give her.
We settled on a family price, and I got the joy of being able to make a complete table this time. Not just the tabletop.
I wanted to blog about it during the build, but given that it was a birthday gift I couldn't out of fear that the surprise was blown.
All the wood comes from the blood beech that I milled a couple of years ago, save for the pegs that I used for the drawbores that are made of ash, and the butterflies that are made of elm.
I had forgotten how much work there is in flattening a massive slab using hand planes, and at one point I considered if I should try to make a flattening jig for a router. But I decided that it wasn't worth the while for just one slab.
A thing I remembered from last time was that it was important to make the breadboard ends before putting too much energy into the flattening. Simply to keep the split parts of the crotch in place. So that is where I started.
As soon as the breadboard ends were in place, a regular workout using a jointer plane with a scrub blade in it was the next task. I switched a little with a regular jointer and going either diagonally or traversing the grain.
The slab had twisted a bit during drying, so one small area in the top end of the crotch kept being about 1/4" lower than the rest of the surface. I decided that it would be a waste of time, wood and energy to remove that much wood from the rest of the slab, just to get everything flat. After all it was an area about half the size of my palm, and I felt that it gave a bit of character to the table.
I made a bunch of butterflies in progressively larger sizes out of elm, just to give a bit of contrast to the beech. The butterflies serve both to stabilize the split crotch area and to fill up the void so you don't accidentally push a dinner plate through the large hole.
Once the butterflies were glued in place, they were dressed down to the surface of the tabletop, and I sanded starting with grit 40 on a belt sander and ending with grit 240 on a random orbit sander.
The undercarriage for the table was interesting to make due to the tabletop not being rectangular. I decided that it would look the best if the legs were sort of the same distance from the edges of the table. To avoid any hiccups, I made some full size drawings of each end, so I had something to work from.
I mounted the two traverse pieces with a tenon through the center, and the traverse piece itself set into the top of the leg (I am a bit uncertain what the technical name of that type of joint is).
After chopping in MMXXV in the lower stretcher, the table got a couple of coats of a wipe on finish (linseed oil, spar varnish and turpentine) And it was moved inside the house to be ready for pick up (and to make a bit of space int he shop again).
As always a challenging and satisfying project. The biggest issues were that he top was heavy and unwieldy, and that it takes up a lot of space during the build.
I clocked my hours, and all in all there is 60 hours of work in the table.
Wow!!!! It's beautiful. There is nothing like working with a gorgeous slab for a tabletop. Good choice not to jump on the bandwagon of an epoxy river table. This one will be stunning forever.
ReplyDeleteThanks Brian, I agree completely, those epoxy tables are not really my thing. Some of them look fine, but I am too cheap to buy that amount of epoxy, and I am always wondering if the epoxy will become loose as wood movement sets in.
DeleteBrgds Jonas
Something else, it's great that you're related to the new owner. You'll be able to see this table over and over in the coming years. Always a bonus. I know the Lady who has my slab top table, it is more beautiful every time I see it.
DeleteI never thought of that. But that is actually an advantage.
DeleteNicely done. Those butterflies really do take that area from feeling like a big gap to useable space.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the nice comment.
DeleteTechnically you can still manage to push a small glass through the largest void, but a mug for coffee or tea won't go through :-)
Brgds Jonas
Wow Nice Work! big timbers are heavy, but I like what you did with this one. So often they are too boring and just filled with resin and put on metal legs, boring.
ReplyDeleteHi Jeremy.
DeleteThanks for the nice comment. I couldn't agree more. I guess the reason for all those metal legs is that they are fast and cheap. And I know that some people like the contrast of black metal legs and a couple of wide planks. But to me - half of the table is the undercarriage. I made the undercarriage a bit more nimble this time compared to what I usually do, and also a bit more than I would have preferred, but I had to make do with the wood that I had. I still think it looks stout without loosing the elegance. But the undercarriage would have been made a bit beefier if I had had the wood for it :-)
Brgds Jonas
Impressive. Especially like the cascading butterfly inlays.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ralph,
DeleteThey did come out pretty well I think. And on this table they aren't purely decorative. Thought they look great too :-) I guess it is a win-win situation.
Brgds Jonas