When one collects antiques, it is not unusual to have mismatched pieces, and in fact many might consider that part of their charm.  Therefore when one makes pieces in an antique style, it is probably safe to ignore the matching aspect as well.  So of course, this table looks like nothing else we own, and I felt I had free rein to  make it look however I wanted. The design was based loosely on an antique (or at least oldish) side table we had picked up in a Regina antique shop years back. When all was said and done, the only actual similarities are the style of the top, the height, and the type of wood.

Of course, after much agonizing about various aspects of the design ("where should I copy this part from?"), a plan was made to use in construction. There were a few changes made during the building process which are not reflected in the plans below, but this is where it started.

Walnut was used in order to match the current table. None of the pieces needed for the table were especially large, so it could all be made from 4/4 or 8/4 planks. The original pile of lumber was around 18 board-feet, and most of it was used. Given that a board-foot of walnut (purchased at retail) costs about the same as a pound of steak, building one's own table is something done for reasons other than economy.

I started with the carved panel since that seemed like it would be the most involved piece. Since this was to be a pierced carving - holes from front to back - it was started by transferring an outline on the blank and drilling out sections that were to be open completely through.

The next step was to expand the holes and shape them closer to the desired lines. The original thought was that the router table with a suitable small-diameter bit would work well for that. Unfortunately, small-diameter router bits of a length adequate for the 3/4"-thick wood are pretty hard to come by. So, instead, a Dremel (Cutzall-style) bit was mounted in the router. That necessitated making up a suitable adapter to go from the 0.125" diameter Dremel bit to the 0.5" router chuck. That was just a 0.5" dia. steel bar drilled for the bit, and then with a couple saw cuts to let it compress a bit in the router chuck.

Ultimately, though, this proved to be of limited usefulness since many of the sections to be cut out (designated by the scribbled-upon areas) were smaller than could easily be made with a rotating bit, as the picture above shows. The better technique was to use a jigsaw to cut out the through-hole sections.

In the past I haven't had much satisfaction trying to cut hardwood of this thickness with a cheapo jigsaw (Dremel brand), but was pleasantly surprised when a fairly large blade made cuts to the detail needed (albeit at a painful 30 seconds per inch rate).

The final mechanical step was to employ another Dremel bit, but this time in the drill press (yes, I do have an actual Dremel rotary tool, but it didn't get used for this project). The intent here was to drill down to specific depths as a carving guide. The photo below shows some slots cut in the thinner sections that establish the approximate depth needed to carve the stems. Later the same operation was performed to establish the depths of the leaves.

In order to hold the walnut blank steady for carving, a home-made jig was used to squeeze it from the end. The shot below shows the almost-complete piece positioned in the jig. The jig has a couple wedges at one end, and the right-hand one gets tapped upwards with the little brass hammer to clamp the piece in place. To remove the piece, the wedge is loosened by tapping it downwards on the silver screw that can be seen at the top of the jig. This let the blank be pulled out and re-clamped in a few seconds to clear shavings or flip it over.

Also evident in the photo below is the rather...um...eclectic selection of carving tools. Most of them were probably used at one time or another during the process (including the utility knife), but three or four of the smaller tools were probably most heavily used. And despite the presence of the fine hand-crafted mallet, most carving was done by hand.

Meanwhile, back in rough chronological order, the shot below also shows some of the depth holes for the leaves. Most of the leaves were angled somewhat, and the holes helped prevent too many errors.

The thickness of the blank was chosen to be 3/4" to be sure that there was enough room for the two layers of vine and the angled leaves. However, most of the detail is in the center 1/3 of the blank, meaning that it usually needed to be carved down 1/4" to 1/2" before getting to the desired level. As a result, there was a fair amount of material removal. The shot below shows most of the bulk removal done from the top side, and the first leaf completed.

The back of the blank was shaped in a similar fashion, although a smooth back was used for the leaves rather than giving them veins.

While developing the pattern, one goal was to avoid making the finished piece too fragile. That was accomplished by making sure that the leaves were well supported, so they either intersect the walls or rest on the vine. The shot below shows the almost-complete piece, with one leaf left to be sized. As can be seen, that was done by cutting the appropriate pattern out of paper and using it for final trimming of the leaf edges.

The shots below show the panel plan and the completed panel from the front and back sides.

Carving the panel was the most time-consuming part of the table, and took about 50 hours.

Construction of the top was fairly straightforward. It was to be composed of planks about 2.5" wide, so those were selected for interesting grain, cut to size, jointed for flatness and planed for thickness. Biscuits were used to join the pieces, although the glue joint was probably more than strong enough. The router table with an appropriate bit was used to cut the slots for the biscuits. The photo below shows the biscuits in the plank edges. The pieces are sitting on a router table which was just a convenient surface to use.

The dry-assembled top is shown below.

The five planks were glued up, assembled and clamped. The 1/4" steel cover of the router table, topped by a piece of 5/8" MDF provided a flat surface on which to clamp the planks. The use of the biscuits actually slows the application of glue significantly, so the process would have been less rushed by first assembling just three planks, and then adding the remaining two in a second session. As it was, the glue applied first was starting to set by the time the last glue was applied. This made for tougher clamping, since the glue was not lubricating the pieces as well as is customary.

After assembly, any remaining glue residue was removed and the pieces evened out by sanding. The photo below shows the pattern being transferred to the top.

In the past, I have often used a pounce wheel, but in this case, I used carbon paper. It just so happens that sometime earlier while searching a desk drawer for something, I came across some carbon paper. Now, I'm not sure how old the carbon paper was, but it may have been bought to use with an electric typewriter the family had when I was a kid. I say this because a. it was in an old Northern Electric manila envelope - my father worked for "Northern" as it was referred to, before it changed it's name to Nortel, in 1976, and b. there was also a package of onion skin paper, the uses for which now escape me (although a quick Google suggests that it is good for typing with carbon paper - something I never had cause to do - but also makes very good paper airplanes - something I had also never tried, but can now report is true). But I digress.

However, I'll also just mention that I found an elastic band in the same old envelope, with dark stains from the carbon paper. Now, I also don't know just how old the elastic band was, but it was definitely years and perhaps decades old. But it was as supple and stretchy and pliable as if it had just leaked out of a rubber tree (although I imagine there is actually in fact some processing involved). However, the point is that some of the elastic bands of today are crap. I've used ones where they actually dried out in a couple weeks and broke. Ah...the 1970s - loud pants, bell-bottoms, typewriters, carbon paper and darned good elastics!

Anyway, the top was cut out on the bandsaw as shown, and then sanded to the lines using a spindle sander.

Since it is difficult to make perfectly smooth curves (especially the convex ones) using a spindle sander, the curves generally need to be re-sanded by hand. This was done with some curved wooden forms and regular sandpaper. Running a finger along the curve or just checking the edge visually is usually enough to reveal any imperfections. A grit of 150 was used for this shaping, and then 220 was used to remove any significant sanding marks.

The upper edge of the top was then routed to a beaded shape.

As mentioned on the main page, the attachment of the top is done with walnut clamps (sometimes called turnbuttons). These are little blocks that get screwed to the top. They each have a tongue that fits into a groove in the sides to clamp down the top. This permits a bit of movement for seasonal expansion and contraction. The top was drilled from the bottom side for the screws holding these clamps, but that was not done until after finishing.

Despite the prominence of the top to the table, it took only about 7 hours to make.

I thought it was about time to get to the turning part of the project, so the next step was to crank out some turned legs. But actually I decided to do the stretchers first since they were a bit simpler and I figured they would be good practice for doing the legs. However, starting on the stretchers revealed that I actually needed even more practice before I could start on the practice pieces. So I spent some time trying out techniques and tools to make the types of shapes I was going to need. I finally developed techniques that were appropriate for my skill level.

The process that I had the most problems with was forming the ends of the square sections where they transition to round. Perhaps it was the type of wood I was using, but I had a great deal of trouble doing this with a clean edge. Even using a technique from a video tutorial on how to do it did not seem to work for me. Yah, must have been the wood. However, I finally managed to come up with a technique that worked consistently with my wood, my tools and my skill level. When it looked like I had the technique settled, I started on a new piece of wood to gain consistency, and after numerous successful ends, I was ready to proceed.

The photo below shows one of the short stretchers half-completed.

Another issue that came to light during the practice work was the fragility of the square edges. It takes just the tiniest incidental contact with a tool or the tool rest to ruin the nice sharp corners of the square sections - with the fact that they stick out further than anything else just making it more risky. To prevent this, corner guards were added to the square sections. These were just L-shaped pieces that were held on with hose clamps.

To fabricate the legs, the center of the blank was marked at both ends to help guide the spur center and the tailstock centers when mounting in the lathe. Marking a reference on the spur center end of the wood is usually a good idea too since if the piece rotates for any reason (such as a nasty catch), then it can be rotated back to the original orientation, which can sometimes make a bit of difference in centering.

A 1:1 plan was used to mark out the edges of the square portion, and the lines extended around the four sides of the blank so that they are more visible when spinning - one can be just seen below in the center of the spinning-wood shot. The end of the square portions were then cut, and the anti-klutz corners added.

The non-square portions of the leg were rounded and then, using the plan as a guide, pencil-marked at strategic edges. The process used was then to cut down to the appropriate diameter at each marked edge using a beading or parting tool. The thickness calipers were used to transfer the measurement from the plan to the wood. The two photos immediately below show this, but they are just practice pieces - not part of the table. I didn't include the practice time (several hours) or making special turning tools (a couple hours) in the times quoted for the various bits.

Once the appropriate diameters were established, the individual sections could be shaped. The first three shots below show one section with the diameters roughed, and then with final shaping.

The shaping was largely done with gouges and scrapers, but those were used only to give a rough shape. The final shaping and finish was performed using files. This had a couple advantages since it could provide smooth curves, and also gave a decent surface finish that did not require any sanding. It is also less risky since there is no danger of a piece-wrecking catch when using a file. A diverse selection of files was used from largish mill files through half-round down to needle files. The first of the completed legs is shown below.

The four legs can be seen below after trimming to equal lengths. While the slight differences in the individual shapes of the legs are painfully obvious to the turner, they don't look too bad separated by a foot or two at the corners of the table.

The first leg took around 4 hours to complete, and with the techniques becoming more familiar, the last three took closer to three hours each. Making the three spindles and the legs took about 25 hours total.

The table skirts were the last remaining parts to be made. While carving vines on the other three sides just wasn't in the cards, it seemed like a good idea to have something in the design that tied together all the skirts of the table. For that, they all received matching trim in the form of a rope-motif edge beading.

The beading was started by rounding the edge, using chisels and a spokeshave. The location of the "wraps" in the "rope" were then marked using a cardboard pattern to ensure consistency.

Each edge was then cut using a 90 degree V-gouge (also sometimes confusingly called a parting tool). This formed the dips between the rope turns. Straight and skew chisels were used to extend this V-cut to the edges of the bead where it was too tight to use the V-gouge.

Each groove was then rounded using the V-gouge and skew chisels. When done, the grooves were cleaned up a bit with a 60 degree skew chisel. The photo below shows an edge being trimmed with the gouge, held in the ratty gloves I wore to protect against incidental cuts. The ragged finger was probably a result of the gloves' heroic self-sacrifice in a hazardous power-sanding situation.

The photo below shows the carved panel with the beading completed.

The beading ended up being fairly time-consuming due to all the detail work. The beading on the carved panel above took about 4 hours, but the sides, being longer in length took 6 or 7 hours each. All together about 20 hours was spent on the beading.

The table skirts were pretty straightforward, especially the end opposite the carved panel, since it was just a blank panel. While the end panels were 3/4" thick, the side panels did not need to be quite as robust, and were made to 1/2" thickness instead. The side panels were arced and then all had the beading added.

The panels were pretty straightforward, and making all three (not including the beading) took around 4 hours.

The bulk of the assembly work involved preparing the various pieces to fit together. The "kit" is shown below with all the significant pieces. The prep was started by cutting the legs to length. The next step was to use the router to cut mortises in the leg tops to accept the ends of the skirts. The photo below shows the four leg tops with 1/2" and 1/4" mortises (the slots) for the ends and sides respectively. Matching tenons were cut into the ends and sides. The length of the tenons was made a bit shorter than the mortise depth to ensure that the face of the skirts was the main contact point with the legs, so there would be no gaps.

However, since the skirts have square bottoms while the ends of the mortises are round, one or the other had to be changed to fit. Rounding the skirt ends (tenons) seemed like a better choice. One of the side skirts can be seen in the vise after having the bottom end of the tenon modified to be round.

The stretchers were fabricated with 3/4" diameter extensions at their ends, with the intent to fit them into holes in the other pieces. To that end, the holes were drilled in the legs and stretchers as shown below. Other than that, the little clamps to hold the top were fabricated, and the notches they hold to in the sides were routed.

That pretty much completed the assembly prep, with the next stage being the actual assembly. That was done in two steps, with the first step being to assemble the two ends of the table. One of them is shown below, with the clamps on for gluing. Care was taken to keep everything square and flat. That particular end had a bit of a twist in it, perhaps due to an imperfect end joint or off-square hole for the stretcher. One of the corners was shimmed up a bit to help compensate while the glue dried, which seemed to do the trick.

The two ends were then assembled with the side skirts and the middle stretcher, with the result being shown below. The frame ended up being pretty square, so there was no problem with flatness when the top was put on.

Unfortunately, as can be seen below, there was a different problem apparent when the top was set in place. The top was just too small. It barely extended past the corners of the table, so it had a bit of a "flood pants" look to it. In the photo below it is most obvious in the rightmost corner of the table.

The top had been modeled on another table with similar dimensions, but a different construction. The small overhang that looked fine on that table looked to my eyes much too small for this one.

l wasn't about to spend all that time on the table and have it look goofy in the end, so there was nothing to do but to make a larger top.

So it was back to the wood store for another couple boards of walnut, cut them into planks, square the edges, flatten the sides, plane to thickness, glue up into a complete top, sand smooth, mark for shape, cut out on the bandsaw, shape on the spindle sander, finish shaping by hand, route the decorative edge, and sand the edges.

This time, with the memory fresh from the first one, I eliminated the biscuit joints (the glue should have more than enough strength by itself) and glued it up in two sessions - four planks first, and then added the remaining three planks. The new and improved assembled top prior to shaping is shown below - now with more planks!

Obviously my technique had improved, since this top took only a little over three hours to make versus seven for the original. Plus now I have a spare table top.

Finishing was pretty straightforward. The top was finished separately from the frame, since it was to be attached afterwards with the clamps. The top and frame can be seen below, drying. The clamps are the seven little pieces lined up beside the tabletop, and the short slots for the clamps can be seen in the adjacent photo on the inside of the table skirts.

The finish used was Miniwax Wipe-on Poly, Satin. Steel wool of grade #0000 was used between the coats to roughen up the previous coat for better adhesion. This was a pretty simple process on the top, but took over an hour on the frame due to all the little crevices, then vacuuming the residue off and using a tack cloth to remove any remaining steel wool particles. The frame ended up with two coats and the top got four to give it a bit more protection. The finish was applied with a bristle brush to the frame, and using a bristle brush or a sponge brush for the top.

Finishing took about 5 hours. The photo below shows the underside of the table after the top has been attached.

The finished table is shown below.