Tavolinetto Da Salotto

What started out as the simplest of all designs for a side table, created a few challenges for me. Any table with only 2 legs is going to have some stability issues, but having already found some stunning brown oak for the legs and a chunky slab of sweet chestnut, I had to find a way to bring these 2 contrasting wood cuts together to make a functional piece of art. 

Apart from aesthetic proportions, the key measurement was the overall height of this piece. Too low and it's useless , too high and it isn't stable. I'd already decided how to attach the legs to the table top, but what I didn't see coming was how hard it would be to cut a large through mortise in a 4 inch slab of chestnut. 

It would have been a lot easier to use standard mortise and tenon joint, but for me that just hides some of the beauty inside the wood. This table would have solid oak end grain as a feature in the chestnut top, so the tenons would have to be long enough to go all the way through.  

I wanted to leave the rough cut brown oak beam as I'd found it - this meant that I'd have to be extra careful measuring out the leg tenons. I wanted to keep some of the rustic appeal, especially in the legs , so I resisted the temptation to mill them perfectly square, which would have made everything easier.

Cutting the large oak tenons with a handsaw kept me warm in the workshop - I could have cut them on the band saw, or the table saw more easily, but it's always more fun to use elbow grease and practise my pull saw technique too. 

This saw came in hand for the large chestnut tenon wedges. Although these pale wedges would be a really nice feature against the dark oak end grain, they are great for adding strength to through tenon joints. I chose to cut these with the pull saw too, rather than band saw them. 

Since these very chunky leg tenons were solid oak, it was going to need a heavy steel hammer to force them into the wedge slots to have any influence at all on the oak, which may or may not move over. 

I knew these leg joints would be very tough, but large enough to give this little table a lot of strength.  

After a couple of days chiselling out these enormous mortise holes it was time to check the leg tenon fit. They needed to be snug, but not so tight that they wouldn't come out again. The wedges would give the joint it's final tightness and reinforce the join. 

I'd make 4 more cuts in the 2 leg tenons to make way for the 4 chestnut wedges. I was tempted to leave the tenons proud of the top because I like the way they looked. But this would on make the table more difficult to wipe clean after a spill - so not practical at all.  

It was quite a lot of work to make way for these wedges but in a simple piece like this, there must be something else, and I wanted to make these leg joints strong enough to last a very long time.

The last thing to do before assembling was belt sand the legs and top while I still had seperate components. After that it was time to assemble and finish this piece. 

I was exited to see how the brown oak legs would come out after some Danish oil. This is still my favourite thing about this table, the contrast between these brown oak legs and the pale chestnut top. 

I'm really happy how this piece came out - the wood grain, the colours the beautiful simplicity and the inner strength.

A week or two after finishing with coats of was oil for a protective conditioning finish, I listed it on Etsy and it sold straight away to a chap on a narrow boat. What a perfect fit - a narrow table for a narrow boat. 

 

This is the Etsy listing with the review that my customer left me.

I'm glad it has a new home with someone who appreciates it.