Walnut table finally finished - Pictures

[Tom Hoffman]

Here is my walnut kitchen table. My thanks to so many in the SMC community that inspired me and taught me so many things, especially those that that helped with my pesky finishing questions.

• Top is 74"x38"
• Behlens Rock Hard rubbed to 1500, then pumice rubbed, then Behlens Deluxing Compound
• Mortised breadboard ends
• Two 20"x20" drawers underneath
• Drawer sides tiger maple
• Drawer bottoms 1/16" bookmatched beech veneer (both sides) over 1/8" baltic birch.
• Legs have 1/16" bookmatched veneers on all four sides

Picture sequence shows rough boards and "shop made" router flattening jig. Once I got one side flat, I could run it through the planer and jointer to get 4 square. Then after glue up, I flattened with a Ebay refurbished Stanly #7, then my LN #4 1/2 smoother.

[chris fox]

really nice work. I havent seen a kitchen table having drawers but probably makes sense. How long did it take you to polish out the finish?

Again nice work! Where are chairs??

[Darl Bundren]

That's a beautiful table! I was recliner shopping with my wife today (for her mom); I found that I usually find better looking and higher quality furniture here than I can even the high end furniture stores. Yours is another example. How deep are the drawers and the skirt they are set in?

[Dan Forman]

Wow! Love that figure in the top. Looks like you put in a lot of time and effort on the finish. Well done.

Dan

[Bruce Page]

Beautiful table!
That finish is so nice that I'd be afraid to put anything down on it!

[Mike Shoemaker]

Absolutley beautiful. I have a slab of walnut that i want to make a breakfast bar with. Your table is an inspiration

[Dan Oliphant]

Very nice Tom. You done good.

[John Schreiber]

Very beautiful. It will be appreciated for years and years.

[Randy Long]

Wow! Wow! Wow!

[Don Bullock]

Beautiful table displaying excellent craftsmanship. I love the grain pattern matching in the top and the finish is fantastic. Could you give some details on how you finished the table?

I continue to be amazed and inspired by what I see from people like you.

[Cody Colston]

Ditto what everyone else said. That table is beautiful.

It's obvious you put some effort into grain matching and the curl on tthe breadboard end is awesome. Thanks for showing.

[Dan Mages]

Can I buy one? Excellent work!!

[Tom Hoffman]

Thanks for all the nice complements. I'm still a rookie. If you only knew how many times I had to re-do things, tweak something here and there. I attribute the final product to my obsessive perfectionist personality. I could never make a living doing this. I'd go broke.

Chris Fox: If I knew then what I know now, I'd say the finish would take about 20 hours. 4 or 5 "build" coats of varnish, power sanded with 320 between coats to get the surface flat. Once flat, about 2 or 3 hours on each side to hand wet sand through the following grits: 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, pumice, wax. But, I didn't know then what I know now. I probably tried 5 different products and wet sanding schedules resulting in well over 100 hours just on the finish.

Darl Bundren: The skirt (apron) is 4 inches high. The drawers take up 2.5 inches in height; are 20" deep, and 20" wide held in place with runners and kickers that span with width of the table.

Don Bullock: I found the key on walnut is to get the grain filled first. I started it all by wet sanding with 50/50 boiled linseed oil(BLO)/mineral spirits to bring out the grain fill the pores with the sanding residue. The BLO really made the grain "pop." I discovered the 100% BLO made the top too dark for my liking. This was 3 year old air dryed walnut which had so many beautiful colors in it, I didn't want to spoil the colors by making it too dark. The BLO mix will dry out as you sand leaving a kind of clumpy sawdust residue. Through trial and error, I discovered it was best to let it dry overnight, then carefully scrape the surface flat and VERY lightly hand sand it flat before applying the first coat of varnish. If you wipe the oil/residue off when it's still wet, it was very hard not to have it come out of the pores, thus defeating the purpose. After that, the build coats were brushed on, left to dry in my very dusty garage, then sanded with my random orbital sander with 320 between coats. Have to be very careful not to get too aggressive. Yes, I did sand through - several times. After about 4 or 5 coats, the surface should be pretty flat. That's when it's ready for the hand wet sanding. I also found that even taking it up to the finest grits, I still had to put on a wax to make it look nice. I tried Briwax and Behlens Deluxing Compound. I like the Behlens best, but there really wasn't a huge difference.

[Ron Brese]

Tom I believe a guy could look into the top of that table and have a shave instead of using a mirror.

Ron

[lou sansone]

great looking table .. love walnut and you did a great job
lou