Thread: A brace of Walnut tilt-top tables

I can see why your Mother would be annoyed as the piece is an heirloom. Your Grandfather was certainly a skilled crafstman . Lookin forward to a WIP

I hope at least the nephew was deserving of the table!

Will you be coping the leg joints, or faceting the bottom of the pillar? If the former, I hope you and your dad have synchronised your callipers etc.

Originally Posted by Woodwould

I hope at least the nephew was deserving of the table!

Will you be coping the leg joints, or faceting the bottom of the pillar? If the former, I hope you and your dad have synchronised your callipers etc.

At the least, he appreciates who made it...

Faceting, and we're both on Imperial time for this one!

Originally Posted by Peter36

I can see why your Mother would be annoyed as the piece is an heirloom. Your Grandfather was certainly a skilled crafstman . Lookin forward to a WIP

Indeed he was - so there's a fair bit to live up to!

Here’s a few pictures of some of the wood that is to be used. The Regia was bagged after a storm in the Ovens Valley knocked down a few hearty limbs at a friend’s farm. The black Walnut came after a quick drive to my local timber yard.

The design of the tables is a scaled-down American colonial piece. Construction will be traditional, with the legs dovetailed into the pedestal etc., while animal glue will be used throughout. As Tsar bond, the hide glue (aka bone glue, nag clag, horse sauce, scotch glue or groom’s revenge) I often use came out of the old Soviet Bloc, I thought it only fair to mate it with a design from the Western Hemisphere. Being from the USSR, I dread to think about its contents, but it works very well. You can read an excellent piece on ‘horse sauce’ here.

Huzzar for the Ovens Valley and the Walnut it produces!

Originally Posted by Woodwould

Huzzar for the Ovens Valley and the Walnut it produces!

As you well know walnut does have its inclusions and sometimes foreign objects. It also varies a great deal.
Coming out of the woodwork and recognising BD as my son, the pieces he gave me for the pedestals are amazingly different. The first is far less dense than the second and for me more difficult to turn. The colour varies greatly too.
From now on things slow down as the bird-cage spindles are nearly an exact copy of the pedestal but only 2 1/2" long. I'll have to dig out my small set of marples.
Cheers,
Jim

Very nice turning there Jimbur!

Originally Posted by jimbur

Coming out of the woodwork and recognising BD as my son...

I hope you broke it to him gently before coming out with this revelation on the forum!

I have milled somewhere between fifteen and twenty Walnut trees that I bought in or around the Ovens Valley (one from Dargo was four feet diameter about a foot above the ground). Some from the same property were virtually identical (same variety), but the remainder were very different which speaks volumes about the Victorian Walnut industry in its formative years.

Originally Posted by Woodwould

I hope you broke it to him gently before coming out with this revelation on the forum!

Oops. Knew I'd forgotten to do something.

Originally Posted by jimbur

Coming out of the woodwork and recognising BD as my son

Finally out of the wood-closet! Is that the lathe you make all those Regency radiata pine pens on?

Originally Posted by Blue-deviled

Finally out of the wood-closet! Is that the lathe you make all those Regency radiata pine pens on?

Oh the shame of it!

Originally Posted by Woodwould

Oh the shame of it!

I wouldn't know how to get the ink in them.

Originally Posted by Blue-deviled

Finally out of the wood-closet! Is that the lathe you make all those Regency radiata pine pens on?

I know what to get you for Christmas now you ingrate.

Well, you two certainly will have your work cut out living up to the standard of the original, but you have made a damned good start JIm! Great turning!

As an aside I have only turned one piece of Walnut. It was given to me buy a friend and I really loved turning it. I made a small, thin walled bowl. I was amazed at how thin I was able to get the walls.