The process started with an Elm Tree that was standing-dead in southwest Johnson County, Kansas. We milled the log at Tom the Sawyer’s mill on June 3rd, 2016 and let the wood air dry for over a year. The color and grain pattern were amazing even as it came off the mill. This mirror image effect is called book-matching. It occurs when you take two boards that were on top of one another in the log and flip them open… the effects can be stunning.
Several passes later through the planer and jointer, the table was ready to be glued together. We used some floating tenon joinery to add some strength to the joint.
Once the glue had dried we trimmed up the piece to its final shape and started to apply epoxy to stabilize knots and fill imperfections in the wood.
We finally got some time to finish this project. As the saying goes… the cobblers children have no shoes… so it goes with furniture makers. This desk is being built to replace our office desk that has been a a folding table for the past 7 years (enough said on this topic… as it is too embarrassing). A couple passes through the wide-belt sander and we are in the home stretch
Next comes constructing the legs out of rectangular tubing. Some cuts with the metal band-saw, a little welding (including attaching nuts to hold leg levelers), some primer and a coat of paint… and there you have it… desk legs
With the finish applied and the table legs attached; all that was left to do was to take a photo of our new desk.
