I recently completed a coffee table that I was commissioned to design and build. The customer had an olive ash burl slab that had been warehoused for over 20 years, and wanted me to make a coffee table. The slab had natural edges, and he wanted that appearance preserved. I produced several different concepts for the table base, and after some revisions, eventually arrived at a base that I felt complemented the top, but did not draw attention away from it. We discussed various options for the wood to use for the base, and ultimately decided upon wenge. Fortunately, I live close to World Timber in Hubert, NC, and had no problem obtaining the wenge in the needed dimensions. Here is the concept sketch that I created with Sketchup, which I use for all of my design work as well as construction drawings.
Here are couple of views of the completed table.
The slab had a some water damage on the ends that required removing, but was otherwise in great shape. I wire brushed the edges, and used a flap sander to polish them. The imprints of the rootlets of a vine that had been growing on the tree became apparent during this process, and I preserved those, as I thought it added some interesting detail.
I had some concern about the stability of the base, so I built a mock up of the base out 2 x 4's. As it turned out, it was quite stable, although I did tweak the dimensions of the original design a bit to optimize the stability.
Construction of the base was a bit challenging. I elected to use miter joints which I glued together, then cut slots for multiple splines which were then glued into place. Once the splines were cut off flush and sanded, the final shaping of the legs was done.
The customer was very happy with the result, as was I. For those who might be interested, there are a few more photos in my NCWW gallery in the album "Olive Ash Burl and Wenge Coffee Table." Thanks for taking a look.
Cheers,
Matt
Here are couple of views of the completed table.
The slab had a some water damage on the ends that required removing, but was otherwise in great shape. I wire brushed the edges, and used a flap sander to polish them. The imprints of the rootlets of a vine that had been growing on the tree became apparent during this process, and I preserved those, as I thought it added some interesting detail.
I had some concern about the stability of the base, so I built a mock up of the base out 2 x 4's. As it turned out, it was quite stable, although I did tweak the dimensions of the original design a bit to optimize the stability.
Construction of the base was a bit challenging. I elected to use miter joints which I glued together, then cut slots for multiple splines which were then glued into place. Once the splines were cut off flush and sanded, the final shaping of the legs was done.
The customer was very happy with the result, as was I. For those who might be interested, there are a few more photos in my NCWW gallery in the album "Olive Ash Burl and Wenge Coffee Table." Thanks for taking a look.
Cheers,
Matt
