Floating table

This table is currently available.                h 30" x w45" x d 21"       

Curly Claro Walnut, Camphor

I made this writing desk because I needed a place to sit and pay my bills and a drawer to store my check book in.   The design began as a beautiful plank of Claro Walnut that I thought would look nice if it were resawn and book matched.  A minor mishap with the bandsaw made it necessary to plane the boards to 5/8", a thickness that is noticeably thinner than most table tops.  Rather than try and disguise the fact that the top is visually thinner than I would have liked, I decided to emphasize it by beveling the underside with a rather wide bevel to make the edge appear even thinner.   I then added spacers between the apron and the top to accentuate the thinness and make the top appear to float above the table.  The design of the base came together as I built it.  I knew I wanted the legs to taper and an apron with some type of molding detail.  after the joinery was completed I decided to use a gouge to carve a shallow wide cove on the apron.  I really liked the way that the tooling marks left by the gouge gave a textural representation to the curly figure so I decided to add some carving to the legs.   Since the legs were already cut and tapered this meant the only place left was the corners.  I like the way the top of the chamfer reflects the subtle profile of the cove in the apron.  the last detail to be worked out was how to attach the top without interrupting the clean look from the side. The top and bottom of the table top are both visible, which meant a traditional method of attaching the top would be visually unacceptable.  I needed something that would replace the normal function of the apron, which is to keep the top flat, as well as a means of attaching the top.  a good friend of mine suggested using sliding dovetails, a solution I had already dismissed because I didn't want the resulting groove showing from the front.  That is when my friend, furniture maker extrodinare John Burt, suggested segmenting the sliding dovetails.   The table top is attached by setting it on top of the dovetail pins and pushing it to the front 2"- the elegant solution.  Something that is integral to the success of the design, yet can't even be seen.  This table has many details that are not readily noticeable, yet combine to make a harmonious design, one that is very three dimensional.  The top and the apron are slightly curved on the ends of the table.   The spacers between the apron and the top are graduated in width, as are the spaces between them.  The wide chamfer on the underside of the top is not flat, but is a 4" radius, shaped by hand with a spoke shave.  There are 20 hand cut mortice and tennon joints, 8 of which have double stub tennons. The dovetails on the drawer were cut by hand as were the segmented sliding dovetails that secure the top.  The finish is eight coats of hand rubbed tung oil and carnuba wax.