Canterbury Shaker Table (Maple/Cherry)

[Jason Tuinstra]

It's been awhile since I've been in the woodshop so it's nice to actually be able to share something with all of you. I started this on April 27, and just finished it up this afternoon. It's nothing fancy or original. The snap shop of Peter Turner's version in the latest FWW got my juices flowing. I took most of the dimensions after a version that was produced at the Canterbury Shaker Village.

I don't have access to regular quantities of curly anything so I take what I can get. In this case, it wasn't much but enough to give the drawers and table top some character.

I normally use BLO on everything, but I wanted to keep the maple top as white as possible, so I skipped the BLO for the top and shot it with some water white pre-cat lacquer. Very happy with the results.

The pics are pretty self explanatory. If you want to check out the construction pics, I've posted them at my personal site so as not to take up bandwidth here.

Thanks for looking... Jason

[Jason Tuinstra]

A few more...

[Jim Rimmer]

Really nice finish and detail work. Great project. You obviously have more time for the shop than I do if you started on 4/27 and are done already.

[Glenn Lewis]

gorgeous... love the drawer fronts.

[Todd Burch]

Great job Jason. I've always liked your attention to detail, like orienting the front legs for the best view of the grain.

Beautiful!

Todd

[Don Bullock]

...

I normally use BLO on everything, but I wanted to keep the maple top as white as possible, so I skipped the BLO for the top and shot it with some water white pre-cat lacquer. Very happy with the results.... Jason

You should be very happy with the results. That's a beautiful piece. Your work is always an inspiration to me.

I'm making a table with a quilted maple top. Like you I want the maple to be as white as possible, but still show the quilted grain pattern. Will the water white pre-cat lacquer pop the quilted grain but keep the white like it did on your table top? Is there a particular brand that you used? Thanks.

[David Gendron]

realy nice work, nice details! I just went to your web site, and it is also realy nice!
Good work!

[Martin Shupe]

Flawless work, as usual.

May I ask the top dimension of your legs? 1.5? 1.25? 1 and 3/8?

I ask because mine were 1.5, and look "thicker" than yours. Perhaps mine are too thick.

See this link....

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=45436

Jason, I knew once you learned to hand cut dovetails, yours would look better than mine. Great job, I expected nothing less.

(Hey Todd, glad to see you back around here.)

[Jack Camillo]

Outstanding execution, of course. Personally, I don't like the top the way it is. The possible word to explain my reaction is "incomplete." Maybe I'd like it better in person.
Thanks for sharing your work. You continue to inspire the amateurs like me.

[John Keeton]

Jason, like everyone else has observed - this is a beautiful piece. But, what seems to come out in your work is a warmth and comfort - as if you have really put part of yourself into your work. There are many great woodworkers that post their work here, but not all pieces seem to have that "personality." You seem to always accomplish that. You truly love to create pieces and it shows.

[David Keller NC]

Jason - Very nicely done, particularly the proportions. Curly mpale, by the way, is pretty common here in the East, but curly cherry isn't all that easy to come by even here where the tree grows, so if you obtained any of it you did well.

One comment - the table's proportions and dimensions, as well as the craftmanship is beyond reproach. However, I've a suggestion on the legs - I note that the front face of the front legs is quartersawn. This means the outside faces on the sides are face-grain, which is a bit of jarring contrast.

You might consider sawing some 8/4 stock into rift-sawn pieces for your next version and see whether you like it - having the grain lines intersect with the 4 surfaces at 45 degree angles means that the entire square leg will have a uniform grain appearance.

Nice work!

[glenn bradley]

Great figure in those drawer fronts. Very nice.

[gary Zimmel]

Another beautiful piece Jason.

Every time I see a project posted by you it raises my standards to shoot for.

[Jason Tuinstra]

Thanks everyone for your generous and gracious comments. I love being able to share what I do. I get so much inspiration from all of you in the projects you share so I like being able to contribute something myself.

DAN: The lacquer I shot the table top with is MACLAC F-232 (29 Series) Water White Semi-Gloss Low VOC. I shot the rest with MACLAC F-252 (80 Series) Precat Unicoat Semi-Gloss. I'm sure you'd get more "pop" from using an aniline dye, oil, and top coat, but that wasn't the look that I was after. I'm actually very satisfied with the depth that is achieved by simply using lacquer as a top coat. I used this same approach on my walnut/tiger maple box which has more figure than this maple and the depth is very nice. But I'm by no means an expert when it comes to finishing.

Martin: First, you're table looks fantastic! You can certainly see that you've been trained by the best. My table's legs are 1.25 square tapering down to 5/8". The table top is 25.5X17.5 with a height of 27.5. They're a little bit different than the original but nominally so. Thanks for the comments!

Jack: Mixed woods are a mixed bag for people. I'm cool with that. Some like them, others/many don't. For me, I enjoy mixing things up every now and again - though the most mixing I normally do is walnut pegs. I'm not a fan of the yellow look of maple, that's why I tried to preserve the creaminess of it for as long as I can. Thanks for the comments and the honesty. Much appreciated.

David: Like I said I am at the mercy of the stack when it comes to anything curly. But my supplier tends to have ample curly cherry mixed into the normal/only stack. I built my wine cabinet http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=35159 from cherry from the "regular" stock - though I rarely find anything this fantastic. Maple, not so much. No idea why. Anyway, regarding the legs, I've always liked the look of the qs, but I'll have to try something different and take you up on your suggestion. Thanks for the helpful idea.

Everyone: Thanks again!

[David Keller NC]

Yep - that's some seriously nice cherry. If you get to the point where you want curly maple for a particular project, there's a good number of 'net dealers that can supply anything from moderate to spectacular - you just have to pay to have it shipped. I'm aware that's gotta be frustrating when those of us on the East Coast buy it for 1/2 the price, but then again, we have to pay a massive amount of money for good redwood - it's all relative.

One source that comes to mind that you can order sight unseen from and be assured that you will get spectacular figured cherry and maple from is Irion Lumber. Their prices seem high until you see what you get - there aren't many places to get figured cherry in 20" wide boards. If you've got a local woodworking club or even just a couple of friends, it cuts down on the pain of paying for the shipping for an order (that would apply, of course, to a lot of the East Coast dealers that will ship, like Hearne).