The table is finished (mostly). I finally got it all sanded and then we decided to use Tung Oil as the finish. It brings out the color and contrast of the wood without darkening it too much. It looks pretty awesome. I just put on the second coat yesterday so there’s still a bit of gloss to the finish, but it should dull out a bit more when it’s full dry. We’re totally in love with this table. Here are a few before and after pictures…
Before...
Before...
And with the Tung Oil…
Finished.
Finished.
Finished.
This week we finally got our Black Walnut planned out so we could begin working on building the coffee table. So far I think I’ve got about 8-10 hours in on it. I finished working on it last night at about 10pm and I’m pretty sure my hands haven’t hurt that much in long time. They’re still pretty soar. It’s coming along quite nicely though. All the major stuff (the legs) is done now. I don’t have a lot of the tools that would make the job a lot easier so I’ve been making due what what I’ve got. Pretty much have just used a handsaw, chisel, hammer, drill and dremel so far. A table-saw would be well appreciated at this point, but then again I’m past all the stuff that would require one.
A few more tools would be nice.
Chisel, chisel, chisel.
Thus far, I’ve only had one mishap. I’m cutting notches out of the legs to fit around a shelf under the table. Getting a tight fit has been the most difficult part of the process because I have to cut the notch with the handsaw, chisel the wood out and then fine tune the notch with the dremel or sandpaper. On one of the legs I think I tried to force it a little to much and put a crack in the foot of the leg. I didn’t think it was a very big crack, but when I tried putting the table up on it’s site the piece broke off. Not a huge setback. I glued the piece back on with Gorilla Glue and fastened it with a couple of screws. It should hold and probably makes the foot a bit stronger than otherwise.
Oops.
Progress thus far.