Tasmanian Blackwood Hall Table – Viewer Project
This hall table project comes all the way from the land down under and is submitted by Carl. The structure is reminiscent of a bridge and its a form that works well for this piece. And although the offset drawer begs the question, “Why?”, I believe there is a very simple answer: “Why not?”. Let’s check it out:
I thought I would submit this viewer project to you as I am so damned proud of it. It’s my first piece of “fine furniture.” I built it as part of a Hall Table Course I did here in Melbourne, Australia. It’s made from Tasmanian Blackwood and has recycled Jarrah stretchers and drawer handle. For most of the joints we used the Domino although I did make my own loose rectangular tenons to fit between the bottom stretchers.
We went through everything from dimensioning the rough lumber, selecting our pieces to match the grain pattern, assembling and finishing. Six sessions in all. I made a few mistakes along the way but all were easily fixed and can’t be seen in the finished product. The handle and stretchers were rough cut on the bandsaw and then I finessed them by hand to get it all looking good. All the other work was done using the usual tools … tablesaw, bandsaw for the inside tapers on the legs, hand scrapers and hand planes.
The finish is Organoil Hard Burnishing Oil. It’s a natural, organic oil with a lovely lemon scent! Sanded up to 400 grit, applied the oil and then sanded with the oil on the timber to create a slurry (this has the effect of sealing the wood.) I continued sanding with the ETS on the oil/slurry all the way up to 4000 grit! Then some EEE (Tripoli) and wax to finish it up nicely. I’m really proud of the final result and it now stands proudly in our hallway for anyone to see as soon as they come into our home.
Thanks again for all your incredible work and sharing your gift with the rest of us. It really does inspire. There are heaps of pics on my Flickr page. There is also a WIP discussion on the woodworking forums.
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Carl –
This piece is fantastic, and brilliant for a first piece too. I really do enjoy the drawer off to the side. The movement in the grain on the left side is really nice, and as it smooths out into straight grain it leaves a perfect place for the drawer. The curved brace on the bottome is also very nice and connects well with the drawer handle. Good work all around!
Bryan
I like the offset drawer. I always try to make everything symmetrical which is predictable and sometimes boring. Thanks for the inspiration to step out of the (symmetrical) box.
Carl,
You should be very proud! Damn fine work if I do say so myself. Congrats on your first quality piece of fine woodworking!
Nice job. I really like the stretcher design, especially the arch. Did you give thought to other edge treatments for the top itself? (and 6 sessions is pretty darn good, unless “session” = “month”, in which case I”m still not sure I’d finish it…)
Thanks. The six sessions were one day a week (not including finishing). I did a little work at home during one week but the rest was done during the course.
As for the edge treatment, I did consider doing something with the top but decided against it. There was enough going on in the rest of the piece and to do anything else would probably have just made it too busy. Looking back, I’m glad I left the top nice and simple too.
I like the stretcher design. You can tell alot of hard work went into this piece. The jarrah in the stretcher is very beautiful.
I like it. I would like to see a picture of the top of the table though. The stretcher seems to have just enough mass and shape to offset the large space above it. Nice woodworking!
I like the simple design. The drawer is interesting. Well executed.
Looks great Carl. I’ve used your pore-filling method of finishing on a few pieces myself. It’s time consuming but can result in a beautiful, flat finish–all in the wood.
Good job.
DD
Simply elegant in its simplicity (aesthetics -not in the the development for sure). Just an outstanding piece. I love the arched stretcher and the asymetrical drawer placement. An inspiration to others ready to move onto their first major piece. Thanks for sharing.
Very nice. I really like the stretchers and the drawer/ figure interaction. What was your inspiration?
Thanks Mark. Once I prepared all the initial pieces of timber I decided to balance the grain feature on the left with the drawer on the right. It seems to have worked well.
The stretchers were a bit of an evolution. The course encouraged us to take the basic hall table design and make it our own.
WOW! Thanks everyone for the incredibly generous responses. It really is appreciated. I’ll respond in situ in a moment but wanted to say a general thank you for the encouraging support and feedback.
Looks like it was fun to build.
Is that your workshop? Wish my shop had flooring like that.
I wish! It’s the Ideal Tools workshop. They sell a heap of Festool stuff and also run the course there. It’s a beautiful workshop and yes, it’s always that clean and organised!
G’day mate,
You know you’re my inspiration right? And you know that Son wants to have a stern word or two with you since you’ve sent me down this (expensive) path?
Looking forward to seeing you and TLOYL!
Mike.
Haha! Thanks mate. I’ll have a word with your lovely wife when we catch up. I’m an expert at getting away with spending money on this sort of thing!
Cheers,
Carl
I have seen something similar that David Marks has done. It was a writing desk Carl has done a good job of his own rendition.
The arched stretcher really takes this tables design and raises it up a knotch. I’m not sure about the drawer, guess I need to go to Australia and see this in person :) Nice work.
dw
The wood is beautiful – Being new to wood working everything I am learning with has been pine. Besides creating something with my own hands and having someone say how nice it looks is watching the finish bring the wood back to life. Great work!!!
The arched stretcher makes the peice for me.
Great Job.
Dude your table is sweet. I would have debated for weeks whether or not to place that drawer off to the side and fear in the end I would not have had the stones to do it. I guess growing up with sharks and crocs means living with no fear. Strong work! My next project is a hall table and I just hope I can make something as nice and unique as yours.
Don’t forget the bouncy riding of a Kangaroo to work each morning too! ;-)
very nice work and the design is very pleasing. I checked out more photos on the link and there are some really good pics. happy holidays
Very Nice indeed.
Very well done. Now that you have that under your belt, what is your next project?? Do you have a shop to let yourself go wild in? Look forward to seeing more work from you in the future.
Nate
Thanks Nate. This course really gave me the confidence to do a heap of other projects. I’ve made a small coffee table and am currently working on a Greene & Greene style bedside table. Photos are all up on my Flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/carljoseph).
I’ve taken over our double garage. My wife gets to decorate the house, I get to decorate the garage! Works well for me! :-)
Oops, that link didn’t convert properly. http://flickr.com/photos/carljoseph
Top notch work. The offset drawer and curved stretcher are great individualized focus points. I am impressed with how the finish brings attention to the wood.
The blackwood that you used is great. I think it is the first time I have seen it used in a project. It makes the design of the table better.
I really like to look of the wood. I also like the arch in the bottom stretcher.