Some slabs

[Jeff Mackay]

I guess this is a kind of a gloat. Picked up some slabs from Craig's list this weekend:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-b1Mdmz3pMBk/T1fzlypiMYI/AAAAAAAABUs/4B2JSeyV2bI/s912/IMG_0862.JPG

These are 8/4 air-dried cherry, 8 1/2 feet long, widths of 16" to 24" each--book-matched, and from the same tree. Actually, my wife and I were talking about a table for the kitchen. She wanted a round, expandable table. I said: "What about a slab table instead". She went to Craig's list and found the slabs. I figure I'll make two tables, one for us. One for sale.

[Richard Wolf]

Nice looking wood!

[Art Mulder]

Your wife hunts wood for you and encourages you to buy it... how sweet is that!? :D

But if the narrowest is 16"... doesn't that limit you to a table width of about 30" max?
My table is quite a bit wider than that

[Paul Saffold]

No, that's not kind of gloat. It IS a gloat. Nice wood indeed. Do you have pictures of the tables yet?:p

[Jeff Mackay]

Art,

Yep. I think I'll keep her :)

I plan on transforming them into a slab table, so I'll keep a live edge on the boards--cracks and all. The boards on the right side of the picture are a little over 18" wide at the narrowest. And the boards already have one relatively straight edge. So that will hopefully give me a bit less than 36" of width on the table on the narrow end, and almost 48" on the other. Due to the size of the room and cabinets in the way, I'll probably go for a bit over six feet in length on the table. So the width will probably work out, even if it's less than ideal. Another option would be to slip some contrasting wood like a birdseye curly maple between them--it would match the kitchen, which has maple cabinets combined with cherry cabinets. But if I do that--at least on the wider boards--the width will be a bit too much at the wide end. So I'm thinking I'll just live with a bit less than ideal width on the table. Any other ideas anybody?

Not sure what I'll do with the narrower set of boards yet. Maybe the contrasting wood thing. Maybe a bench or two. Maybe a couple coffee tables. Maybe something else.

[Trent Shirley]

Is the gloat about the wood or your wife?

[Bobby O'Neal]

Sweet score. Should be alot of fun. All you need to do now is get those planes nice and sharp and let 'em eat.

[Art Mulder]

I plan on transforming them into a slab table, so I'll keep a live edge on the boards--cracks and all.
...
Not sure what I'll do with the narrower set of boards yet. Maybe the contrasting wood thing. Maybe a bench or two. Maybe a couple coffee tables. Maybe something else.

ahhh, I never would have considered a live edge for a dining/kitchen table.
(And I'm not a fan of live-edge stuff, so I just never think about it.)

I have always thought than an asymmetric coffee table, or in your case one that follows the shape of the slab, would be an interesting project. It would take some thought to work out what sort of understructure would work with it.

[Prashun Patel]

Have you thought about a contrasting (or not contrasting) triangle-shaped wedge in the middle? It doesn't have to be rectangular.

[Mike Wilkins]

Those slabs are not healthy. They are dangerous in your area. Please send them to me, freight collect, so that I may properly dispose of them (make some slab tables).
Congrats on the great find, and for having a wife that encourages this sort of behavior.

[David Helm]

Leaving a space between the two slabs makes a nice table also. I've done that on a coffee table. You could also put a few butterflies in contrasting wood that holds the two together. The only thing you didn't say in your gloat is what you paid for them. That, for me, will determine if you really do suck! Oh, and by the way, what did she use as search criteria?

[matt tennessen]

I think I saw that listing. Brookfield? Nice work Jeff's wife! Huge fan of live edge tables, looking forward to the finished product.

[Michael Mayo]

Leaving a space between the two slabs makes a nice table also. I've done that on a coffee table. You could also put a few butterflies in contrasting wood that holds the two together. The only thing you didn't say in your gloat is what you paid for them. That, for me, will determine if you really do suck! Oh, and by the way, what did she use as search criteria?

That is what I was thinking very nice slabs but how much did you have to plunk down for those very large hunks of wood? The ones I have looked at online are always over $1,000 that size and bigger. Very nice score indeed and definitely post up some pics of the finished tables.

[Jeff Mackay]

Hmmm. In terms of price paid, local mills are in the neighborhood of about $5 to $6 a board foot for cherry retail, plus a 10% to 20% premium for wide stuff greater than 10 inches wide. I paid less than retail--certainly less than $1000 (for all four) Of course a set of four book-matched slabs would probably have run an additional premium so I'm happy with the deal. Personally, I think most of the prices I've seen online for big slabs are ridiculous. But I'm cheap. :)

[Jeff Mackay]

Prashun, that's a good idea. I'll definitely have to see what it looks like to have the slabs at angle to each other with a triangular filler between.

Jeff

[Jeff Mackay]

David, I suggested a gap between the slabs, but we have a six-year-old... I still like the idea though. I definitely plan to use butterfly keys to hold them together. Depending on how much wood I sacrifice to get the length I need, I may also use some keys to tie cracks together. To me, the keys are one of the main attractions of the Nakashima style slab tables.

[Michael Mayo]

Well if you paid significantly less than $1,000 then I would say you did fantastic considering what I have seen available from the sources I have found online. And most of those were for one slab not a book matched pair so that would be more than worthy of a huge gloat frankly. Again please post pics of your finished tables as I for one would love to see them completed I can just imagine what they will look like when done. WOW!

[Joe Angrisani]

Jeff.... Did you pay his asking price, or did you get him to come down?

[Jeff Mackay]

Matt, the listing was from a guy in Slinger. The wood comes from a private lot in southwest Wisconsin. He still had a bit left on Sunday morning.

[Jeff Mackay]

Bobby, I'll let them acclimate a bit. I still need to check moisture content but I expect they'll be fine. The planes I'm sure will be up to the task. Not sure if my arms will be. I'm hoping to flatten and smooth without power, but I'm not entirely opposed to using a router if it turns out to be more work than I expect.

[Jeff Mackay]

Joe, I thought his asking price was fair. But we did negotiate a bit on a volume discount. :) I expect to do business with him again.

[Jeff Mackay]

Mike, I like to live dangerously. :D Megan encourages this behavior but that encouragement only goes so far. I called the seller as soon as she found the listing, and hopped in the car an hour or two later. Didn't want to give her time to change her mind. But when I got home, she informed me that this purchase would be deducted from my hobby budget. I tried to argue that this was more a household purchase than a hobby purchase, but she didn't buy it.:mad: So the vision of a brand new L-V scrub plane I had on the way home gave way to an upcoming exercise in grinding a radius on a jack plane blade.

[Joe Angrisani]

That's a decent deal.

And therefore, YOU SUCK!