Mark’s Rustic Oak Dining Table

My wife and I always wanted a solid wood dining table and I have always been partial to oak. Unfortunately, these tables are pretty expensive here in Germany. I tend to operate on the assumption of “what’s the worst that could happen.” So I embarked on an adventure almost three years in the making, which started with watching EVERY video Marc had posted!

I wanted massive oak legs and I wanted to see as much end grain as possible; so I decided to let the legs follow all the way through to the tabletop. To complement the massive legs, the tabletop needed to be at least 4 cm thick. So I started looking for suitable lumber, not an easy job here in Germany.

I finally found 4 leg blanks but they were pretty warped, so it took me almost 4 hours each with a Nr.4 and Nr.6 Stanley to get them down to size. Because I didn’t have any clamps that were longer then 30 cm, I had to improvise with tension belts used to secure loads for transportation to glue up my tabletop. This worked well enough. All cracks and knots were filled in with epoxy resin. (I poured about 200 ml into one of the leg blanks). Cutting the mortises for the rails were another challenge, as well as a good test of my patience, but the dry fit of the base was worth every blister.

Six hours with a belt and random orbit sander, working my way up from 40 to 240 grit left my back raw. But assembling the table for the first time made me forget the pain. I admit this project may not be up to par in comparison to some of the very fine furniture here I see posted here, but this is my first piece built with a minimum of machinery and lots of anxiety. And that makes sitting at it all the more gratifying! Thanks for allowing me to share my project with you!