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Project Information

Greetings all and Happy New Year. Hard to believe that it has been more than a year since I posted a project. As many of you can relate, life takes time. Work, travel for work, travel for vacation, relocating the kids and on and on. You get the picture. Projects were started and then sat idle for weeks or months. In any event, we have been without a dining room set for a few years. We debated on whether to stay in the A&C vein or perhaps Greene and Greene. A trip to the Metropolitan Museum in NYC and the Michener Museum in Doylestown PA helped end the debate. We decided to go for something in the style of George Nakashima. I am building a dining table, sideboard and a display shelf. All will be solid walnut and feature natural edges. The table is based on Nakashima's Frenchman's Cove I Table.

I traveled to Talarico Hardwoods in Mohnton PA to look over the selection of flitches. I purchased a pair of bookmatched 6/4 walnut (10 foot) for the top and another 10/4 for the base (also 10 foot).





Once they arrived, the usual debarking and cutting to rough size followed. The 10/4 flitch was broken down to yield the parts for the table base.





The tops were leveled and smoothed using handplanes. That operation took almost a week to complete. The base features bridle joint construction for the legs and stretchers.







The top needed some butterfly splines for cracks. So the areas in need of repair were routed and chiseled out and the splines glued into place and then planed flush with the top.







Cracks and voids were filled with 5 minute epoxy tinted with Trans Tint Mission Brown dye. Once the epoxy had set, it was planes and sanded flush.



The two halves of the table top were joined with a total of 8 butterfly splices (4 on top and four below).





The top is 84" long x 44.5" wide and 1 3/8" thick.

The base was sanded to 600 grit. The top was sanded to 1200 grit. The finish is Odie's oil, Odie's Wood Butter and a final top coat of Odie's Wax.



Overall, it was a fun project and a lot of firsts for me. I hope to complete the sideboard and display shelf in the near future. Thanks for looking.

Gallery

Comments

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That looks fantastic! I also have a lack of dining set, I have a mess of ash drying now that I plan to use. I only hope it comes out looking half as good as yours. Very nicely done.
 

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An extremely beautiful dining table, very well done!
 

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Very nice!
 

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Hi Vincent,

Awesome table, nice job matching grain. Working with flitches adds a nice touch since everything is out of the same tree. Is the gap in the middle Nakashima trademark? Nice job on planing everything flat, that's not easy work. The keys were also were well done. You really stepped it up on this project.

I've done a number of live edge pieces, I really like look.

I'm looking forward to seeing your efforts on the side board and display shelf.

BillG
 

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That looks really nice! Great use of slabs and the ties look amazing. I'm coincidently in the process of making a live-edge dining table as well, for myself and will post it when I'm completed, hopefully in the next couple weeks.
 

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Fantastic! I'll save a picture to guide me when I'm ready to build dining room table.
 

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Thanks for the comments.

BillG: I have seen a number of Nakashima tables and they can be either one slab, joined boards or two flitches as I have done. The gaps vary from 1/4" to about 3/4". It really depends on the overall shape of the flitch. Another interesting feature is that on many of the original pieces of Nakashima furniture, the butterfly splines are screwed in from below.
 

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Beautiful. Love George Nakashima's work. Simple, graceful lines. Everything is in perfect balance and scale.
 

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Simply Beautiful.
 

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im a big fan of the nakashima style of how the wood is the star and every board Has its purpose you did a great job on this one well worth the wait.
 

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Great looking table. The crotch figure looks excellent. Thanks for sharing your pictures.
 

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Planing the top by hand is impressive. I tried that with my slab table, got 1/4 the way through, and gave up in favor of my friend's drum sander.
 

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Walnut is one of my favorite wood species. I'm especially intrigued by the open space between the two top pieces. I haven't seen butterfly splines used to hold two pieces of wood apart like you have done. It is a very creative way of using the negative space to create a shadow line and it highlights the gorgeous patterns in the walnut. I will keep that in mind for future projects. Nicely done!!!
 

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That is a beautiful Nakashima dining table! I love the slabs you used, the butterflies, and the overall look of it!
 

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Simple elegance! The open joint is a wonderful visual highlight, that grain is so gorgeous, and the natural edges add just the right contrast to the fine woodworking and joinery! Great piece that should make you proud!
 

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Very nice, how durable are you hoping the odies oil is going to be? I am considering it for my table as well but can't find much about its durability
 

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This is my first time using Odie's Oil. According to their website ( http://odiesoil.com), it has UV stabilizers and can be used as an outdoors finish. The site says that the durability improves with age. Guess I will find out as time passes.
 
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