Thorsen House Side Table

Well I’m finally ready to submit this thing.

My goal from the start was to actually complete something in my shop. I thought the deadline would give me enough pressure to get it done.

I had lots of complications along the way. Most of the time that I was able to get to the shop was during late night hours with the kids asleep. Therefore, I had to break out the hand tools in a big way. While this added a lot of fun to the project, it also added a lot of time (which I didn’t really have). I also learned all the things I need to do in my shop to make it somewhat productive.

I used 4/4 rift sawn and quarter sawn white oak. I have no band saw so I tried to hide my laminations in the straight grain wood. My top is a little hefty because I was thicknessing it with hand planes, I didn’t feel like taking it down too far. I was happy with the added thickness until I made up some massive breadboard ends that made the table look too bulky. I decided to not breadboard the top and I kind of like the simplicity of it. I also chose not to add the pegs, stretchers, or the lower shelf. I used haunched tenons to add a little strength given that I was going strecherless. I also get a cleaner mortise when I can cut the first third on my dado blade. I tried to keep it minimalist so it wouldn’t stand out too much against my other furniture.

I kind of rushed the finishing so I’ll probably go back and add some more protection. I also need to buy some tiny files so I can clean up my scroll work :-).

Anyway, had lots of fun. Maybe I’ll try and finish the next challenge a full day ahead of the deadline.