There is something rewarding about taking rough lumber and turning it into fine furniture, especially if it is a design you love to make. Such is the case with this little side table, in the Arts and Crafts (A&C) style of furniture. I thought about all the furniture that I love to make and discovered that there are a number of types and styles, starting with the A&C style of furniture. I am a big fan of William Morris, designer of course of the Morris Chair, Gustav Stickely, Harvey Ellis, Greene and Greene and others, but I am also a big fan of Thomas Molesworth who made a very unique type of furniture in the mid-west. All of these people contributed greatly to styles and types of furniture we have today, and they influenced generations of woodworkers.
This little side table is a simple design, and like most woodworkers, I have adapted some of my own wrinkles to, by combining, in a way, the styles of Havery Ellis and Thomas Molesworth. The carcass of the table is recognisable as a typical A&C table, but the top boasts a natural edge rather than a sawn, planed and finished edge. I also like the height and size of the table, all of which was designed using a Fibonacci Gauge in order to get pleasing lines and dimensions.
But there is a lot more than simply building a piece of furniture. It needs to be finished AND with this piece ti has a natural edge top, so what do we do for edge treatment for the top ... click below to see the following videos ...
In terms of finishing, with this table I wanted it to look different, so opted to go with an Ebony dye to make the gable ends black, then the lower shelf and the top would be left natural. I also opted to use my new GO-TO topcoat finish as Osmo. I have grown to love this stuff, I only wish I had found it years ago.
And Lastly ... the top. What can be done to clean up the edges that were formerly covered with bark, then mis-treated during the milling process and now spray painted in parts, and gouged in others. The simple solution, a wire wheel on a drill.
And all this is what happened ...
Copyright - Colin Knecht
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