Kitchen Table Finished

You are probably thinking, "Holy cow!  This guy works fast and finishes projects like crazy!"

Things aren't always as they appear.

I have been working on this table for about a year.  It was interrupted by construction of the pencil post bed in the previous post, among some other projects. 

I normally don't like to do more than one project at a time.  It has been a long, long time since I got the gratification of finishing something, and now it seems I am finishing something every other day.

This is good, as now I can move on to other things.

This table my wife offered for me to build her parents when they had their new kitchen installed last year.  I readily agreed, because I have never built a large table before, and had just read Robert Wearing's book, "The Essential Woodworker," by Lost Art Press.  If you haven't read this yet, you should.  It is fantastic.

I also agreed because I wanted practice building a table before I do one for us.

That was smart, as I learned a couple painful lessons during this build.  Namely, just because the tenons fit perfectly one at a time does not mean they will fit all together after you glue up and drawbore.

Ouch.

This table has a couple gappy tennons that I tried to fix with some veneer spacers.  Not too noticable, but being my own worst critic, I see them first.

Anyway, the wood for this project is just beautiful.  I was able to pick out some perfectly quartersawn boards at my local lumber yard that were more than 40 mm thick.  I picked the best parts for the top, and laminated the legs with the rest. 

I covered the sides of the legs that showed the lamination and flat sawn grain with some quarter sawn veneer my cousin picked up for a song.  Being my first attempt at veneering, I was pleased.  I'll see if this works on my next table, too.

Anyway, enough words, more pictures:

The back-side of the table.  This will eventually go against the wall.

Close up of the top bevel.  This makes the table incredibly comfortable!

The end of the table showing veneered faces of the legs.

Just gorgeous wood.

The table is finished with boiled linseed oil.  I plan to also apply paste wax before it is delivered.

I was a bit worried about the veneer, as before it was finished there was an obvious color difference.  Also, the Frau seemed to think this was unnecessary and introduced some risk of ruining the project.

But, happily, it turned out just great.  The idea is to make it so no one notices.  If no one ever comments about the construction of the legs (other than woodworkers), I have succeeded.  I didn't want someone to say, "Oh, I see how you glued those two thinner boards together to make one thick leg.  How clever!"

Soon I will be starting a table a bit larger for our appartment.  It is walnut, and so far the lumber looks beautiful.