I've got a pair of bookmatched walnut slabs, 2.5" thick and when joined together ~52" wide in the middle, 48" or so at either end. I'm hoping to put on a trestle style base but am confused as to how big the post needs to be to support a top this wide. An old FWW article indicated that past 36" wide you'd need two posts on each end. I don't love the way this looks, have been playing with a design that includes two 3x4" posts with a 2x2" panel resting loosely in a groove between them. The stretcher would fit into this panel, giving the look of a single wide post with some depth to it. Would this be sufficient, or do the posts need to be further apart to fully support table?

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