Paul, 91 years young, and I like to have a “project.” It’s what we call it. Mainly, we believe it keeps us both out of meanness. I have always appreciated the meticulous, precise craftsmanship of Japanese woodworking traditions with tables. So, we decided to build one. (Actually, our second one)

We found a listing in a local newspaper that read, “Walnut slabs for sale,” with no phone number, just an address.  An Amish family selling a whole tree worth of slabs apparently.  It was a good deal and we took the lot. The pieces had a lot of character – cracks, knots, etc, so that all took a bit to mill it up properly.

For the top itself,  I chose to line the sap layers of the walnut towards a couple of strips of maple to give a bit of variety and to expand the width. (Plus, I think it looks cool) We reinforced the cracks on each end, top, and bottom, with maple and Brazilian cherry inlays. And because Grandpa is a fan of “making sure things stay,” we reinforced the cracks (from the inside) with long 1/2 dowels – glued and hammered in. We joined the table top with dowel joinery.

For the skirt and legs, I wanted it to lock everything together and chose a quasi-tongue and groove style that locks things together through the legs, with the peg sticking out of the end pieces that go through the legs and long sides – everything fits through the legs. This took a bit to get sorted. It didn’t fit right for a day, and then we broke some pieces.  Chisel, chisel, chisel, and more chisel.

We finished it up with a homemade oil.

No screws were harmed or used in the making of this table ;)