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Trestle Table Base

Jim DeLaney

Jim DeLaney

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Been working on this for a while. It's for a friend. I've built the trestle, and he's working on the top.

Trestle 1 001 [800x600].jpg

The ends are 16/4 spalted curly maple, and the cross piece is 10/4 curly maple. Finish is several coats of Watco Natural, followed by a couple coats of clear Briwax. The tusks are 5/4 Bloodwood, also oiled and waxed.

Trestle 1 002 [800x600].jpg

Chopping the mortises (by hand) took quite a while, and worked up several afternoons of pretty good sweat in the process.

Trestle 1 003 [800x600].jpg

I learned that I really hate working with spalted maple. Trying to control the tools going thru varying hardnesses was a chore, and trying to keep the sides and edges of the mortises from crumbling where the spalting is was an even bigger problem.

Now, it's off to Neil's for the top. The top will be two 100" long, 24" wide 6/4 pitsawn walnut boards, joined along the edge with curly koa butterflies, and with some carved koa inlays. Neil said he got the wood from his grandfather, and he thinks it's been sawn for over a hundred years. Ought to make a very interesting one-of-a-kind dining table, for sure.
 
Its about time you showed us that:) and i can see where the planes were used and why your arms got tired on the chisel work..that has alot ripples in it jim.. and those dont flatten out easily..well done Jim:D:thumb::thumb:
 
Rex Bloem said:
That looks like a nice beefy base. It is pretty too. What do mean by pitsawn walnut?
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The base weighs probably something close to a hundred pounds. That 16/4 maple is heavy!

By pitsawn, I mean that the wood was supposedly originally sawn - sometime in the 19th century - using a pit saw. One man stands on an elevated platform, above the log, and another stands in a pit (hence the name) under the log, and they use a huge long saw to rip the log into boards. Extremely labor intensive!

This method leaves very distinctive saw marks on the resultant boards - similar to a bandsaw's marks, but generally more on a diagonal across the face of the boards.
 
I was waiting on the finished product, I know Jim wouldnt tease us like this and not show the product completed.

gonna be one heavy huge table. whos making the chairs to go with it?
 
Rob Keeble said:
So will you take the marks off or is that part of the desired finish. Bit rough i would have thought for the top of a table.
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Thr marks aren't terribly deep, but they wull be sanded just a bit - but they'll still be very visible in the finished table, I'm told.

allen levine said:
...gonna be one heavy huge table. whos making the chairs to go with it?
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You looking for a commission? :rofl::rofl:
 
larry merlau said:
would be nice to see it all together if we could jim:)
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Yeah. Hopefully the top will be far enough along when I deliver the base so that I can get a picture or two. Neil did send me a couple pics of the carving already, though:
 

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Well, I took the table down to Neil's today, and we (temporarily) married it up with its top boards, just to see what it looks like.

It looks BEAUTIFUL! (IMNSHO)

The earlier pictures of the carvings don't do them justice. They're terrific!

Neil still has to put some more oil, and wax, on the top, as well as put some battens across the underside, but it's very near completion, and my part is done.

Here are some pix:
 

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