We were asked by a client to build a large walnut dining table from a tree that was taken down on their property in 2014. The wood was milled on-site by Tom the Sawyer and stored in the basement of the house for over 3 years. The project was interesting as it allowed us to use wood from the actual location where the table was going to be used (now that’s local wood). The desired dimensions were roughly 8’ 6” x 4’, shooting for as thick as the wood would allow.
We transported the wood back to our shop and began sorting to find the pieces best suited to the client’s vision. The goal was to make a double-sided table with the minimal amount of sap wood showing. Sap wood in walnut is a lighter color than the normal dark brown that people associate with walnut and its use is entirely a personal choice. For the most part, the wood was in good condition with only minimal “funk” that you can often find in air-dried wood.
Once we started to plane the wood to uniform thickness a beautiful grain pattern started to emerge. The glue-up went smoothly and the table was trimmed to its target dimensions.
All of the knots were filled with black epoxy, and the entire table was sanded smooth. You can see a few before and after shots that illustrate the effect we achieved.
We applied several coats of our house finish and delivered the piece to its new home.
