Carved cherry and ash table _copy

[Dave McGeehan]

Here is a small table I made that stands 27" high and 18" in diameter.

The ash legs are tapered, bent laminates. The supports are solid ash tapered from the center outward and also tapered top to bottom.

The top is glued up of local cherry.

To make the leaf design I selected leaves from my backyard and the local park. I intentionally used asymmetrically shaped leaves. I placed them in a clockwise overlapping pattern hoping to create a visually pleasing flow. I drew the pattern on paper and traced it on the cherry top. I lowered all the surface surrounding the leaves using a router, trim router, and gouges. The leaves were then hand-carved with gouges. I carved each second or third leaf so a part of it would slightly hang over the edge of the table's perimeter so the design wouldn't feel as if it were trapped by the table's routed edge.

[Dave McGeehan]

Here are a couple pics of the leaf detail.

[Ted Calver]

Dave,
This is a great looking table....creative concept, nicely executed. Good job!!

[mike holden]

Superbly done!

Did you waste away the center by hand? or machine tool?

Mike

[Tom Banwell]

Great job. How did you get the center part so flat? That doesn't look easy.

[Dave McGeehan]

Mike and Tom,

I routed it from the center outward so the router base would have a support area although it got a little shaky as I got near the leaves. If you route towards the center, you'll run out of support surface.

I then removed the ridges left by the router bit by using cabinet scrapers keeping an eye on an even depth. The small areas between the leaves' edges were lowered to match the center area by carving with chisels. After that it was both power and hand sanding.

Dave

[Sam Yerardi]

Beautiful work!

[Dan Barr]

very nice.

i will carve that well one day!

dan

[Jim Becker]

Wow...that's a wonderful design! Great execution on the carving, too. Wow.

[John Thompson]

Really.. really nice and a nice job on the carvings. I can't carve, but as consolation to myself.. I can whittle and spit between my teeth.

Sarge..

[Dave MacArthur]

Wonderful work, I really like the natural theme and bold carving! Hmm, never found myself thinking this before but if I saw that in a store I'd instantly buy it.

[Bill Wyko]

Exquisite Dave! I like everything about it. The carving is beautiflu and the legs are fantastic. Nice job.

[Raymond Fries]

I want those skills too...

I have not done carving yet but want to sometime. Projects like this provide a lot of inspiration.

Thanks for sharing.

[Dave McGeehan]

Thank you for all the compliments. After reading many of the comments, there is an important point I'd like to make to anyone who has ever wanted to carve but might feel intimidated: carving isn't as difficult as the appearance of a finished piece might lead you to believe. Over and over I've seen people who never touched a chisel before turn out beautiful work after receiving some basic woodcarving instruction. It's just a matter of learning the basics and just diving in.

Dave