Friday, June 24, 2011

Star of the Show and Supporting Parts

     A couple of days ago I purchased the Walnut needed to make the side table for a new commission. Yesterday and this morning were spent rough cutting all of the pieces to their required dimensions.  Here is the star of the show, a 12" square piece of marble that was brought here from Vermont and will wind up on  a new side table.

Heirloom Marble from Vermont

     Whenever possible, I like to select one large piece of lumber to make an entire project from.  This way  when the piece is oiled and finished the pieces will react the same.  That's why almost every piece of furniture you buy from a retailer will be stained, dyed, or toned to make it look cohesive.  My biggest objection to that is the fact it's done with a surface coating that can, and will, get scratched, dinged, or peel.  I started out with an 8/4 piece of Walnut that was about 6" wide by 12' long and after re-sawing and planing here's what we have:

Supporting Cast
     Starting at the left there are the pieces that will become the front & bottom dividers, next to them is the pieces for the apron and drawer front.  Then comes the cross braces for the shelf, the legs, the drawer pieces,  the table top frame, and finally the pieces for the bottom shelf.  Not shown are the pieces needed for the runners and kickers for the drawer.  All the pieces are considerbly over-sized but that's the best way to start.  This way I can select the pieces with the most interesting grain pattern where ever I want it to be in the  project.  With this project I intend to keep it very traditional and I'll blog the progress as it goes along.

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