Thread: The Chip bowl that never was...

The story of the Chip Bowl that never was...

This coffee table started out as a slab of mahogany purchased for about $25 from a moving sale at a chainsaw shop in Darwin. As is usual for me, it was some time before I started the project. The slab had been leaning up against the house in the extreme climatic conditions of the Top End and so by the time I got around to starting work, it had acquired a somewhat bowed appearance. However, since it's a rustic piece, I went to work anyway. Slab surfacing was done with a flap disk sander on the angle grinder. Whilst doing this, I was struck with the "brilliant" idea of carving a bowl-like depression into the surface to hold snackfood such as chips/nuts etc. I had only just begun to carve the outline when the Chief Designer happend to wander out to see what I was doing. A minor thermonuclear explosion followed when she saw what I was doing. I was then banished from the tools for a short period so a remedy could be found.

However, all was not lost, as the Chief Designer decided that a "swirly" pattern would look good on top - hence the shape of the final product. I linseed oiled the table before decideding to finish it off with wax, mostly to fill some of the cracks in the top. Being a cheapskate, I opted for ordinary candle wax. Effective, but much slower to bring to a polish than a proper woodworking product! I think that this is my favourite piece of work simply because it's so unusual and because I have a quiet chuckle everytime I remember the "chip bowl incident!"