Making a Walnut Burl side table

[Brian Kent]

I decided to put together some spare wood into a small table for practice.

Practice for this larger project with the major pieces of the same burl: http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=109525

And practice because next Saturday I get to take part in the "A Day With Sam Maloof" class sponsored by UC Riverside. (Closet Gloat)

Don Baer in "Family Woodworking" forum went to the Maloof class and did a nice post called "Building a Maloof Style Pedestal Table". I decided to put a small one together so I would have a better idea what to look for next Saturday.

The 4 leftover burl pieces fit nicely into a shield shape. They are about 1/4 inch thick. I glued them onto the substrate with yellow woodworking glue. First big mistake. They got wet with the glue and curled all over. I finally got all of the edges and centers tamed onto the board. I used de-waxed shellac to seal it and protect it from the rest of the process.

I followed Don Baer's post and made each leg out of 3 pieces with one dowel per joint because of the small size of this piece. When I routed the edges I found out I had made them too small and the feet were vulnerable. Since this is all experimental for me I dunked the feet in Watco for several hours so it could wick in and give a wee bit of hardness. It's OK if I have to scrap the base and try again, but I'll keep going for now.

Picture 3 is the column to hold the legs.

[Brian Kent]

A big issue for my bigger table project is how to form an edge around the burl, for design reasons and to hide the substrate. Jamie Buxton has been really helpful on the project and then Jon van der Linden chimed in with some design and process ideas. Both have been great.

On this piece I am trying a suggestion from Jon that is used in the College of the Redwoods for forming a nicely fitting template.

I took the shield and traced it onto a piece of 1/2 plywood.

Then I cut out the shape with a jig saw, keeping on the line or just outsize the line. After a couple of test fits, I protected the edge of the shield with packing tape and filled in the narrow space with Bondo. I never thought of that one!

I am writing while waiting for the Bondo to harden. I admit I am nervous about the part where I slip the shield out of the template. Will it stick or release cleanly?

The theory is that I use the plywood and Bondo template with a template router bit to make the inside of the edge-trim piece. I may try both Walnut (like the burl) and birch (like the stand) and see which looks best.

[Brian Kent]

The burl released cleanly. I put a 1/8" slice of wood under the burl an tapped around it with a rubber mallet until all the bonds with the packing tape and bondo were broken.

[Brian Kent]

The table pedestal is OK but too spindly for the burl top and the shield shape just doesn't look right (at least yet) as a table.

Setting the burl aside, I glued up a new top to go on the pedestal. Even though it's from the same wood source, it's a different board and looks pink to the pedestal's yellow.

Oh well. it's an experiment.

[Brian Kent]

I'm in the finishing stages of the new small table, but I still have the Burl / Shield to make something from. Since I have the Bondo Template I decided to move forward with an edge for the Burl.

Since I have no walnut at the moment I made a rim from extra Birch. You can see that I did about "C" work, but the process seems good. If this was walnut I could fake it with some epoxy / sawdust between the burl and the rim.

The average error is under 1/64", the maximum error is 1/16" in a couple of spots. If I use this, I'll cut the rim down to about an inch from the burl.

[Brian Kent]

The burl shield is set aside for the right project in the future. For now, I stained the top with Cabernet and finished up the project in time for our church's scholarship auction.

One of the reasons I am very glad to do this one is that in my Sam Maloof Workshop class on Saturday (taught by one of his partners, Mike Johnson) I knew a lot more about what to look for. His pedestal feet are much wider. They start coming off of the column at a 90° angle, parallel to the ground, and then turn down. For this size table he would also use 6/4 or 8/4 lumber, not 4/4 as I used. This one could tip over or break someday. Sam's won't.

[Brian Kent]

This Photo is of a Curly Maple Pedestal Table from Sam Maloof's Historic Residence:

[John Keeton]

Brian, can't see the top well enough to tell, but the base appears to be curly (striped, tiger, flame) maple as opposed to bird's eye maple. One good looking table, though!

I've enjoyed your journey on this one - thanks for the posts.

[Brian Kent]

Thank you, John. I just corrected my post. I was thinking Curly when I wrote Bird's Eye. Brian's Brain Fart.

[Brian Kent]

They told a fun story about a miniature rocker Sam made for his grandson. The boy asked his teacher if he could bring his chair for show and tell.

The teacher said "Of course."

The boy said, "I'll have to check because it might be in the Smithsonian".

[Todd Hoppe]

When you say "stained the top with Cabernet," what do you mean? A cabernet colored dye? What dye? It looks great!

[Brian Kent]

It's Varathane premium Wood Stain - Cabernet color.

I made several mistakes along the way. Instead of using a quick, light coat of dewaxed shellac to fill pores, I gave it several layers and sanded to 320 before I started. The stain had nowhere to soak in. So I re-sanded to 100 / 150 / 220 and applied several coats. At one point I added some of the stain to my oil-based wipe-on poly and was very lucky it dried.

If I did it again I would sand to 220, apply one quick coat of de-waxed shellac, and then add several coats of Cabernet until it was the right color. Then I'd top it of with a brushed coat of wipe-on poly and several wiped on coats of wipe on. poly,

One more thing - it will be sold at a United Methodist Church for their scholarship auction and we can't have alcohol at church, so I'll call it "Welch's Grape Juice" instead of Cabernet.

[Chris Padilla]

Very clean, Brian, very clean.