finish project

[John Davidson]

Its been a while since I posted anything but I finished this Table up a couple of weeks back and thought I would throw a picture up real quick. My oldest daughter is getting married this Saturday so not much time for anything else. :) :( :eek: :confused:

[Dick Parr]

That is a very beautiful table John. :) Is it made of mahogany?

Good luck this weekend. :eek: :D

[Chris Barton]

WOW John, what a stunning piece. Is it Maple? Tell us how you did the curves in the skirt and the legs. I "specialize" in Federal Period and Queen Anne Period pieces and think this is top notch work!


Chris

[Alan Turner]

Wonderful work! I would love to see a shot of the table taken from the bottom up; and a detail shot of the B&C feet. Did you carve the edge profile on the top, or only the required parts of it? Is the design taken from a John Goddard table? It seems similar, but I am away from my reference books at the moment.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Very Well Done John!! I might be biased, but to me there is nothing quite so nice as 18th century furniture done well.

[Matthew Dworman]

Absolutely Beautiful! Nice job!!

[Steve Wargo]

Top notch. Very clean and the color is great. Congrats on a job well done.

[John Miliunas]

Holy smokes, John!:) A++++...You go to the head of the class!:D Simply stunning BUT, how about some more details when you get a minute or three to spare? Thanks for a very inspirational piece!:) :cool:

[Marc Hills]

John,

That is absolutely stunning work! Can anyone tell me what kind of tool was traditionally used to make the profile on the edge of the table top? With all those curves, I'm guessing a traditional profile plane would be out of the question. Some kind of super heavy duty scratch stock, maybe?

[Von Bickley]

John,

That is one fine table. I'm sure that will be a family heirloom. :)

[Brad Schmid]

Wow, very nice John. Well done!

[Jim Becker]

That's really wonderful. Great curves!! ;) (Well executed, too...)

[Roy Wall]

John,

Your table is beautiful......very, very impressive. Tell us more - please!!

[Don Baer]

John;
That is realy a thing to behold. All I can say is WOW. I don't dare show that to my wife, she'll want to know why I can't do something like that.

[Dan Forman]

John, that is truly amazing. Excellent job.

Dan

[John Davidson]

I took a couple of classes from Lonnie Bird over the last couple of years. Lonnie does 18th century period funiture. This project was done mostly for the purpose to reinforce the lessons learn there.

As for the design, I checked out several books from the library that had tables that started the process. I saw several that had the scalloped rails and really liked that idea. So as I started the legs I worked out how the rails would be shaped.

Believe it or not I didn't really work from a plan. I hate to work from plans as I find myself constantly refining the design as I go. However, I did make full size poster board patterns of the next part before I moved on.

The rails and legs are mortise and tenon with pins. The wood is Mahogany. The finish is garnet shellac. The top is attached using long lag bolts into screw inserts on the top. The bolts go through slotted corner brace blocks. The top profile was done with a router and bit. It is simply a table edge bit from woodcraft. And yes, I did use power tools as well as hand tools. I think the top could have been done with a beading tool like the one from LN but I am not sure.

The only real problem that I encountered was when I put the first coat of shellac on the top the shade and hue was way off to match the bottom. The top was much too brown and much darker. So, I stripped the top, bleached it. and then dyed it to match to base.

Thanks to everyone for the nice words. This project has done alot to help me build the confidence that I can do this type of woodworking.

John