Solid Walnut Rendition of our New Wave Gothic Dining Table

looks like a real big table

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

Wow, fantastic work, really nice period piece. You do great work. Glad I signed in today to see this.

-- Bob A in NJ

Nice

-- Jim, Kentucky

It looks like you put a lot of hours building that table!!

-- Every step of any project should be considered your masterpiece if you want the finished product to reflect the quality of your work. http://www.FineArtBoxes.com

That is Beautiful, it must weight a ton.

-- Vince

Thanks! -

The black walnut is a bit lighter than the same piece in white oak, but not by a huge factor. This piece was 108” x 46” with two 30” end leaves. Came out to 14ft when fully assembled. Any larger and it would really have to split into two base units.

I have designs pending – just a matter of getting the commissions – for a version that splits. I started playing with the idea of a fixed base with a split top that slides apart, haven’t really found a good way to make it functional without too much risk that it will jam up with expansion and contraction unless I use metal tracking.

-- Eric M. Saperstein, Master Craftsman www.artisansofthevalley.com

Another great looking piece as always. Thanks for posting.

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

I was showing my sig. other your stuff, and he declared “that’s completely impossible!!! It’s so beautiful!!! A human did this???”. That’s a complement, of course. I feel the same. It’s great stuff.

Solid design with some really beautiful details on that piece.
Were you able to find clear pieces of walnut for the top and sides big enough without any trouble?
I’m always curious as to where people get their walnut. Prices are usually pretty high and the selection isn’t always that great, with lots of waste.
How much do you think the final piece weighed?

-- Andy Brownell

Thanks again for the feedback – I’m really surprised how fast people respond on this site. I’ve posted a variety of pieces periodically on different sites and usually never hear anything.

Weight wise these come in around 650lbs … give or take.

Regarding the walnut sources – there are a few places that provide materials around. Black walnut is a bit of a pain to find in good quality sometimes. Many yards ship now but of course depending on where you are different sources apply:

http://www.talaricohardwoods.com/ – has absolutely amazing materials, they actually have a section deemed as “wood porn” ... they’re not kidding if you’re into wood, well … it kind of is. We stopped in a few months ago and checked out the site, really amazing high end old growth quarter sawn walnut, walnut flitches and you’re talking up to 50”+ wide in some cases, quarter sawn white oak, even brown oak, sycamore, amazing maple, tons of stuff available. They are also FSC certified.

http://www.westpennhardwoods.com/ – We’ve picked up a good amount of quarter sawn white oak from these guys.

We have a few local suppliers that don’t ship as well. Prices are not on the low end for good walnut, there is a % of waste depending on what you are looking to get out of it. Unfortunately this particular table the client wanted a dark finish, thus we didn’t bother going with any super highly figured material as it would have just been a waste.

I am intending to build myself a poker table in this gothic style at some point in life – at that time if it is decided to go in walnut I will be picking up likely the English walnut from Talarico. With the exception perhaps of the panels which we’d likely switch to a quarter sawn but more strait grained material, all TBD. I added up the cost of materials for this design, wood, leather padding, etc and it’s easily topping $10-12K. Not in the cards right at this moment!

And yes – this is one of those pieces we have sat back and pondered if we actually pulled it off or if it’s a mirage. The actual construction is a basic trestle table. The panels make the piece, the carving sets it off from there. The rest comes down to the hand rubbed finishes.

Lacquer, conversion varnishes, forget urethane or acrylics …. none of these will bring up the grain and the warmth of wood the same as hand rubbing shellac and tung oil.

-- Eric M. Saperstein, Master Craftsman www.artisansofthevalley.com