I had made a small bowl out of a piece of wood called roasted curly maple, and really liked the color and grain, so I decided to make something larger from the same wood. We needed some additional side tables for the living room, so the next one up was made out of this wood. According to W.W. Web, this wood starts as regular curly maple, which is a nicely figured version of regular maple. The planks are kiln-dried to around 4% moisture level and then roasted at over 300 Deg F for several hours. This caramelizes the wood and changes the colour of the maple from near-white to a rich red-brown
throughout, while preserving the grain pattern and toughening up the wood a bit.
From the local Windsor Plywood source, the maple happened to be available only in planks of one inch thickness, so this put some restrictions on the design - primarily that it couldn't have legs thicker than one inch since I didn't want
the look that results from laminating wood for a thicker leg. Based on this, the design uses a flat end with integral feet. The profile is shaped into a crossing pattern with scroll figures in the notches, and a center pattern with a crossing motif. This is made as a magazine table, with spaces for magazines or books on both sides. The top is a laminated plank design with edge shaping, in keeping with the other side tables we have.
Like most other tables I have made, the construction is mortise-and tennon or dowelled, using wood glue for assembly. On this table, I included a center support to add rigidity, although it was probably not absolutely necessary. There
are a few more details on the construction
here.
| Material: | Roasted Curly Maple |
| Finish: | 3 coats Miniwax Wipe-on Poly, Clear Satin |
| Size: | 24" h x 24" w x 13" d |
| Time: | 130 hours |
| Done: | January 22, 2012 |
