Coffee Table with Zebra wood

[Keith Harrell]

I'm looking at making our son a coffee table that is not the Mission style.
I think I have the design or style down but have been thinking about making the top out of walnut border with zebra wood center. The border will be about 10"-12" I think. The overall table will be around 50"x35". Has anyone seen this combination before I start making sawdust only to find out it doesn't go together or another type of wood would look better.
Thanks

[Frank Drew]

Keith,

What kind of border do you mean? A four-piece mitered-corner border? I'm kind of stuck trying to imagine your design, but 10-12" border seems awfully wide on a table only 35" wide.

As for the walnut/zebra wood combination, there's no reason why it won't work, but you'd be the best judge of that.

[Keith Harrell]

It would be a miter corner table top. I have been wondering about wood movement between the two woods and what problems that maybe.
I agree the 10-12" maybe to wide. The insert or center of the table top would be zebra and the outside or border would be Walnut.

[Peter Quinn]

Well, if your looking for opinions, mine is as opinionated as any. I did a short string of zebra wood jobs at work a while back, it was popular for a few months for some reason. I grew to hate it quite quickly. It looks ok as a single 5" board or so in QS format (the flat sawn is really ugly), but as soon as you glue it up wide it ceases to look exotic and starts to look like and industrial accident. Yuck. We made some counter tops, a bar top, some shelves using zebra plywood in a mitered torsion box with a solid face to float on the wall. No mixing of species, but its pretty ugly in wide glue ups on its own. I can't see any color match issues with walnut, and the walnut is sure to look great! In fact I'd be tempted to use a figured walnut panel in the middle with a QS walnut border and skip the nasty zebra wood altogether.

Be advised that zerbra wood has a strong tendency towards shattering when it is felled, and it often contains many hidden cracks that seem to hide until you are ALMOST finished and then render a piece useless or in need of being ripped and reglued to eliminate the offending cracks. Keep a close eye out for that if you go with zebra wood, and wipe it with alcohol or mineral spirits to reveal any hidden cracks before gluing. DAMHIK

Now one combination I do love is wenge and walnut, maybe with a little curly maple accent stripe at the border of the two. And wenge and rift sawn WO is quite striking too IMO. Heck, you could get some wenge and QSWO and make your own zebra wood that is sure to look great!

[Frank Drew]

If you plan to frame in the zebra wood with a mitered walnut border, the zebra wood's movement will, in all likelihood, pop loose the miters, show a gap between the two woods along the long grain, or both as the seasons change.

Wood will do what it wants to do and we have to plan for it's natural tendencies.

[Keith Harrell]

It seemed like a good idea but movement was unknown. I did a zebra wood panel that floated in a panel door that is still together but I wondered about the flat non floating(glue) construction. I think I'm going to rethink this top or look into a breadboard construction.
Thanks for the suggestions and avoiding a possible headache in a year.

[Prashun Patel]

Since yr asking for opinions...

Personally, I think the Zebrawood should stand on its own without a border. It's busy enough and doesn't need the contrast of a border. If yr looking for contrast, then I'd just make the base in walnut and leave the top as a glued up zebrawood panel.

A while back I saw this table which I believe has a perfect design.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/1828/zebrawood-table

If you search this forum for some work by Richard Dragin and Mark Singer you'll be reinspired by the things you can do with Zebrawood.

[john bateman]

If you're willing to make the center a veneered piece, Certainlywood.com sells a reconstituted zebra veneer that gives a more uniform appearance.


http://certainlywood.com/veneerimages/RC_Zebrano_801-2.JPG

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I made a small desk clock and a lamp using zebrawood with a walnut border. These woods go nice together.

If you never worked with zebrawood, be aware that it suffers from severe chipout when planing (at least with straight planer knives). I also experienced a mild allergic reaction (sinus' got stuffed up) with it.

-Jeff :)

[Rick Markham]

I made a small desk clock and a lamp using zebrawood with a walnut border. These woods go nice together.

If you never worked with zebrawood, be aware that it suffers from severe chipout when planing (at least with straight planer knives). I also experienced a mild allergic reaction (sinus' got stuffed up) with it.

-Jeff :)

It also smells like an open sewer when you are working with it. I made a coffee table out of zebrawood, I will have to try and take a pic for ya. It's really beautiful stuff.

[Will Overton]

From what you are describing it would be 3 boards that are just about equal in width, plus the end pieces. If you want the zebra wood to be framed by the walnut, a 27" panel of zebra wood with a 4" border in walnut would look better. I would go with a breadboard edge, rather than mitered corners. The edges would also be 4" wide.

Zebra wood can also be fun to play with. All the joints in this cabinet really are square. ;)


http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd75/Bill_de/DSC_5931.jpg?t=1279905647

[James Biddle]

Here's a coffee table I did using zebrawood and wenge.

http://www.jabwoodworks.com/gallery/d/167-2/coffeetable3.JPG

[Thomas love]

I like Zebra wood , I guess I like all wood for that matter. I am currently working on a Trestle table with 1 3/4" top 4x8', the trestle is roasted birch (which I am beginning to think is a form of charcoal) looks like walnut. I have made a few projects with zebra wood and wenge as well as with ebony veneer. Hers a few pics. The built in desk in the pics ended up with a nice slab of goncolvo alves ( sorry about the spelling). All the door panels were resawn from 3/4" stock to make book matched doors.

As for putting a border around top , IMO the stripes on zebra wood look nice when they turn the corner. hope the pics help out with the colr contrast issue.
tom

[Thomas love]

Very nice table James.