Back to the Table

Alright, here we are back to the table project. In addition to getting the sander ready for these big slabs of wood, I've also given the wood a chance to rest a bit since ripping, jointing, planing and otherwise rearranging it. It does have a nasty habit of moving around after all that. I'm happy to report  the wood is good. Dead flat according to my 24" Starrett straight edge.

Look at the amazing color in there. I can't wait to get finish on it.


I'm starting to work on the two live edges. I want them to retain all of their shape, and their wonderful texture. At the same time, they need to be a bit more friendly to hands and clothing. I'm trying to find a balance between too rough and completely obliterating the the character that is hidden just below the bark. I'm using a combination of wire brushes, wheels, and sandpaper to work this surface. The transition between lumpy and bumpy live edge,  and smooth, flat top and bottom has to be finessed carefully as well.

Here is a relatively flat section, you can see the straight, linear quality of the edge. A big part of what I'm doing is cleaning the surface. It started out much darker than this.

Here is a more knobby section of the edge. It retains more of the pale grey/blue hue-unless I sand it too much. You can start to see how I'm blurring the transition from edge to top.




The last thing I did today was to lower the adjustable horses down to around our final height. I started playing around with the off cuts from the slabs that will become the trestle ends. As is, they are too wide and would interfere with leg room. I'm debating splitting them down the middle, making them narrower and preserving the live edges. I don't have perfect live edges on both sides since there was some chainsaw work done to the log to fit in the sawmill. The other option is making them trapezoidal as shown in the drawing. I'm leaning to the latter today. We'll see tomorrow.