Hello and welcome to my blog. Â Typically in my blog I am documenting projects as I build them, detailing each part of the build. Â However, this table was built in it’s majority last fall (before the blog) and has been completed just now.
In my family, both my side and my wife’s side, we gather in the living room (used almost exclusively for this purpose) to enjoy coffee or tea and dessert while we share our lives.  This table, loosely inspired by a Ming Dynasty console table, was designed to accommodate those settings for a newer branch of my family.  Hoping to encourage our generation to further the tradition and pass it along to the next.
This table is built of cherry wood, with wedges created in Honduran rosewood and Gaboon ebony.
The winged battens are attached via tapered sliding dovetail, this will allow the table to expand and contract with seasonal change while remaining flat. Â It has been put to the test, the table spent the majority of the winter months near the heater while it awaited weather nice enough to accommodate finishing.
All finished surfaces were created with a hand plane (no sanding) and wiped with blonde shellac.
This is the protruding side of the stretcher to post connection. Â I used a wedged half-dovetail to make the connection.
Finally the undercarriage. Â The battens are attached to the top with tapered sliding dovetails and the post attaches to the those battens with a bridle joint that terminates into the top. Â The assembly is locked together with a tapered pin.
Thank you for visiting, and I hope that you have enjoyed. Â Comments and questions are highly encouraged!
Beautiful!!!! Great workmanship as always, Brian!! Your talent is amazing and I love the table. It is very unique and different . Love, Grandma
Thanks Grandma!
Love
Brian
I really like the design and the various joints used. This should keep the family tradition going for a long time.
Thank you!
Nice. I particularly like what you’ve done with the end grain of the stretcher. Was that a purely asthetic decision?
Thank you Iain! It is purely aesthetic, I’ve seen it done on large carvings and thought to apply it here.