Thread: Queensland Walnut Mid Century "Mod" Coffee Table

Thanks, Bevan.

Yep, I remember the stool well. I believe when I came through you were still making them in a variety of woods. I remember at least Silky Oak, and I'm thinking NG Rosewood as well, maybe?

And wow, 300kg? That's no joke. If the thing fails at half a metric ton, you definitely deserve a pat on the back. I'm assuming that it would be the wood breaking and not the joinery/hardware at a load like that. Either way, I think you have to come to my home country to get clientele that weighs that much, so you should be good to go

Cheers,
Luke

Yep, used to do Silky Oak and Tas Blackwood. Ive done them in Jarrah as well. I found that Interior designers and colour consultants are not interested in the timber really. They want consistency in colour and grain patterns, hence the move to Vic Ash. Also I get the material at a good price. At least with the Vic Ash I can use the coloured OSMO to get the colour they want, if they order enough.

I've sent a few of them to the States in the past, also to Europe.

Yep, I reckon it will be the wood that will fail, not the joinery.

Cheers old mate.

Thank you Luke for some inspiration. That is quality work. Would make a great coffee table I reckon

Beautifully done Luke!!!

I am particularly impressed by the way you have handled the legs and the attachment thereof!!

Luke, it might make you feel even better about your Qld Walnut stash if I tell you about the piece I bought whilst up north a couple of months ago. I got it from "Tolga Woodworks" a place I usually pop into for a stickybeak whenever I'm up there - they often have some nice furniture, made from woods I can't get my hands on any more, so it's nice to simply drool over it & maybe find some inspiration. It was there I saw the table made from the most stunningly figured Qld W_nut I've ever come across. It made me go search their odds & ends bin in case there was an off-cut from it lurking in there. There wasn't, but I did find a nice enough piece, 350 x 200 x 22mm that I reckoned I'd get at least 2 saw handles from.

In the event, I managed to squeeze four handles from it, 2 open & 2 closed, without compromising grain direction through the vital parts, so that made me pretty happy: Qld W-nut 350x200x22.jpg

The cost was absurd at $40, in cubic/metre terms, that's $21,754, or $51.40 a board-foot for Nth American viewers. It sounds a lot better at just $10 per handle....

And the good news is, it seems to be much nicer stuff to work than the last lot I tried, so here's hoping I don't trash any more rasps with this lot. What I wanted was enough to make a 'set' of 12" tenon, 12" carcase & 9/10" dovetail saws, which I've got, and there's still a dovetail handle left over: Qld W_nut handles a.jpg

Not much in the way of 'leftovers', though. I might manage a couple of pen blanks from the largest scrap, but that's about it: leftovers.jpg


Cheers,

Geeze! I might cut my stash up into little bits and market it at that rate. If you need more Ian I would be happy to help, At much better prices. I'm pretty sure a contra deal could be arranged. Man, they were expensive saw handles.

Cheers
Bevan

Originally Posted by Enfield Guy

Geeze! I might cut my stash up into little bits and market it at that rate......

Yeah, well Bevan, I decided I wanted the stuff, and I rarely buy wood, so what the heck!
It was quite a nice bit of Walnut, with some pretty swirls of grain I managed to blend into the curve of the top horn of one handle.

Originally Posted by Enfield Guy

...Man, they were expensive saw handles.....

Yes & no - ten bucks for a handle's worth of material is certainly a lot when you look at it on a per cubic metre basis, but it won't add significantly to the price of the saws - labour is definitely the major input when it comes to saw-making.

Originally Posted by Enfield Guy

...I'm pretty sure a contra deal could be arranged......

Got anything in particular in mind?
If you are looking for a saw or two, my next burst of saw-making is likely to be my last, if not forever, then certainly for a very long time. I'm running low on saw-plate, and not sure I will bother going to the hassle of getting another roll or two. I also have about a dozen other toolmaking projects I want to squeeze in somewhere between a rash of furniture-making projects. Between children & grand-children, the "Dad could you make me......" list is starting to get out of hand! 'Tis said it's better to wear-out than rust-out, but I'm in no danger of the latter, it seems...

Cheers,

It looks to me like I might have to find time to come and make some wooden clamps and pass on some of the cubic metre or so of Walnut I have within arms length. We need to talk.

Originally Posted by IanW

...my next burst of saw-making is likely to be my last, if not forever, then certainly for a very long time....

You're just going to keep on saying that aren't you

I'll bet that walnut makes some pretty fab handles. I'll be interested to see them. From what I can gather, $15-25k per cube seems to be the norm for some of the more uncommon species at "craft" sizes. I remember paying $60k a cube for the gidgee we used to make the router plane! But that was nice enough stuff and it only comes out to $25 for the blank itself. I guess that's the thought process... If you're going to turn it into a worthwhile item (like saw handles or a plane body) then it's probably worth it.

A wood shop in the Tablelands region? That's gotta be pretty great. I don't suppose you saw any Yellow Walnut (Bielschmeida bancroftii) up there did you? After my current coffee table build, it's on to some proper cabinet work. A dresser and, if I'm bold, a matching lingerie chest. I was considering mixing black and yellow walnut in some way.

Cheers,
Luke

Originally Posted by Luke Maddux

You're just going to keep on saying that aren't you .....

Well, the day must come when I do make my last saw, Luke....
In truth, I have made very few saws in the last 18 months or so, a couple for me to try out things like the no-set teeth, and a couple to order. So I better finish off the last of the saw plate soon, or I'll forget how to do it!

Originally Posted by Luke Maddux

.......A wood shop in the Tablelands region? That's gotta be pretty great. I don't suppose you saw any Yellow Walnut (Bielschmeida bancroftii) up there did you? After my current coffee table build, it's on to some proper cabinet work. A dresser and, if I'm bold, a matching lingerie chest. I was considering mixing black and yellow walnut in some way.....

Tolga Woodworks is a pretty well-known landmark. Apart from the furniture, which is aimed at the higher end of the market, they have other knick-knacks suited to impulse-buying (an easy fit in your checked luggage). Whoever looks after the shop seems to have a good eye for nice stuff - even my better half is impressed, & that ain't an easy thing to manage! The wood they have for sale is for turners more than furniture-makers, and mostly workshop scraps, but it varies a lot from visit to visit. I always have a rummage through what's there, mostly looking for highly unusual stuff I can use in some constructive way on small stuff. That's where I first came across the weird orange wood of "Currant bush" (Carissa sp.), for example.

There used to be a fair bit of Yellow Walnut around when I was in my prime, but all I ever saw it used for was flooring, and face veneer for ply. It's about the right density to be a useful furniture wood, but it's another high-silica species, so was avoided for fine work. Fashion tends to be the main arbiter of what woods get used, but also, there's no point in making life hard for yourself when there were plenty of alternatives like Maple & Silky Oak to choose from! But Y.W. is colourful stuff, & could surely be used to good effect in some pieces. There are still a few blokes milling fence-row trees and other windfalls & selling small quantities, so all sorts of stuff is available if you're up there & have the time to chase it up. I always promise myself I'll go & sniff out a ute-load of interesting raw material when I go up there, but by the time I get around & visit all the rellies, I've run out of time to go wood-hunting...

Bevan - Unless the boss finds some other urgent job that has to be done, I'll be finished with kitchens & house-painting in a few more weeks, and ready to escape back to the shed for some recovery time, so if you are serious about clamp-making, and you can find a couple of days spare, we can soon thread up a pile. Walnut would probably make excellent screws, but maybe something less valuable would be better. Crows Ash has become my all-time favourite...

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

Luke, I'd have to refer you to my civil engineer BIL (or the other Ian ) for a 'proper' structural analysis, but my intuitive reaction is that 16mm is a bit on the lean side. What I'd worry about with the short tenons & the sloped legs is that there's a high likelihood of the tenon twisting out of the shallow hole if much weight is applied to it. I would've opted for a depth of at least 25mm and preferably 30 for the leg blocks. That's about the depth of a chair seat, where similar joints manage to support pretty severe (& non-static) loads, so that would be a safer bet for the long haul, methinks. The thicker blocks wouldn't be visible from a normal sitting position would they? So they shouldn't detract from the 'floating' look you were after.

Much depends on how the table is treated, of course. So as long as they have no Cossack friends given to spontaneous table-dancing it should be ok; and I might warn them not to use it for changing the lightbulbs....

Cheers,

as the "other ian" ...

I'd be happier if the blocks were closer to 3/4" (20mm) than 5/8" thick.
I couldn't tell from your post (or I missed where you mentioned it) how much taper is on the tenon.
The other thing I might have done is extend the wedge into the block so that the leg wouldn't rotate.

But overall, the blocks and wedged tenons are a very good solution.

Originally Posted by ian

...The other thing I might have done is extend the wedge into the block so that the leg wouldn't rotate...

Hmmm I never thought about that. How would you do that without being able to see something through the bottom of the plate?

Cheers,
Luke

Hi Luke

Just seen this thread.

Congrats on your first commission! Are you planning to break a bottle of bubbly over the table?

No, don't do that - it is very, very nice and I cannot imagine anyone not being thrilled with the result. The walnut is beautiful, and it is crafted with the best.

Since you asked about the joinery, I would have preferred a little more support around the top of the leg. I am sure yours will be fine, but for reassurance there are two features I would have considered, and probably done both myself ...

The first is to have a thicker "neck", which could then have been tapered back into a slimmer flat base to avoid a bulky look. The second would have been to have let the base of the leg (where it is wedged) protrude about 1/2", and mortice/drill out this amount in (under) the table. This also would have increased any sideways resistance.

As I said, I think it will be fine as done. It is really a beauty!

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by Luke Maddux

How would you do that without being able to see something through the bottom of the plate?

The slot for the wedge shouldn't be deeper than about 3/4 the length of the tenon. That leaves a fair bit of meat in the plate after cutting the slot.