| Project by TampaTom | posted 115 days ago | 819 views | 9 times favorited | 22 comments |  |
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I have been a George Nakashima fan since my neighbor lent me his autographed copy of Soul of a Tree. Nakashima was a master at blending crisply-cut details with wild look of wood slabs cut from the log. Live edges, bark inclusions and all make his tables something much more grand than just a plain old table.
For the past few years, I had wanted to find a suitable piece of wood to use to build my own slab bench, but my hardwood suppliers here in Florida weren’t able to easily lay their hands on such a board. When I had mentioned what I was looking for to Eric Poirier of Bell Forest Products, he located the sweet board for me. Hard maple with both bird’s-eye and tiger effect in it. The wood makes the bench for me… And, the live edge of the board… WOW.
For the base, I used some mahogany and a strip of tiger maple. My friend Craig Andrews drew out the base for me on Sketchup, and it looked very cool. I used a jigsaw and my oscillating spindle sander to bring it to final shape.
The stretcher passes through two open mortises in the legs, giving some visual interest to the piece. There is a top stretcher that is mortised into the two legs. This provides a more than adequate surface to screw the top to the base. Yes, I used screws. The thought of cutting and chiseling through that board’s surface for through tenons didn’t do anything for me. Maybe for a more ordinary looking piece of wood on a later project…
I had to start the finish at my hardwood supplier, Weiss Hardwoods in Largo. They had the big Powermatic wide format belt sander that took the wood from rough to baby’s bottom smooth in about three minutes. I gladly paid the very reasonable fee to have this done for me instead of trying to scrape and sand it smooth myself.
Once I got it home, I used card scrapers and my cabinet scraper to fine the surface up even more. A coat of 1# cut shellac sealed all of the wood on the project, and I sanded that down with 400 grit wet/dry paper to make the wood velvety smooth. I followed that with three top coats of my finishing mix on the entire project, sanding with 600 grit paper between. Then, two coats of wipe on poly were added to the top to provide additional protection. This was finally followed by some paste furniture wax.
This was a very rewarding project. I love to watch people run their hands over the polished top and the live edges when they see it for the first time. That tells me that I think I may have done Nakashima proud.
-- Tom's Workbench - http://tomsworkbench.com
22 comments so far
dustyal
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443 posts in 368 days
posted 115 days ago
Yes, you did him quite proud. Deceptive to look at the grain in the photo and think of it as being smooth to the touch. Fascinating job. Excellent leg design. Honestly, I can’t make up my mind if I like the edge as it is, or perhaps tapered and smoothed to match the ends… don’t think it matters… just thinking it through a little as in, what if? Also, for whatever it is worth from a compete amateur… screw it … I couldn’t bring myself to cut and chisel that top.
I hadn’t heard of a George Nakashima until I saw a piece of his on Antique Roadshow…uh, his pieces are quite nice not to mention pricey !!
-- Al H. - small shop, small projects...
blackcherry
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730 posts in 716 days
posted 115 days ago
Drop dead gorgeous!!! The bird-eye top with the live edge dose it. Will have to look into more of Nakashima work…thanks for posting…Blkcherry
SnowyRiver
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3337 posts in 373 days
posted 115 days ago
Thats a terrific looking table. Very nice job.
-- Wayne - Plymouth MN
patron
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2376 posts in 234 days
posted 115 days ago
beautifull bench .
i’m sure nakashima would be happy
that you are inspired by his work .
i read an article of his ,
where he said the best way to store slabs of wood ,
is standing up on it’s side ,
not flat to the wall ( how it can bow )
it required brackets to keep the slabs from
fliping to flat .
this way both sides could dry evenly ,
and not have sticker marks in the finished piece.
it really works well !
-- david ,new mexico ,allheart
jimp
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157 posts in 654 days
posted 115 days ago
That’s a beautiful bench! I like how you added the maple to the legs.
-- - Jim, Vancouver,WA
TampaTom
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69 posts in 646 days
posted 115 days ago
Adding the maple was fun… I basically added the strip between the mahogany halves and glued the through mortise into place. No fuss, no muss!
-- Tom's Workbench - http://tomsworkbench.com
cwdance1
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186 posts in 152 days
posted 115 days ago
Stunning piece of wood, beautiful job.
Casper
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12 posts in 122 days
posted 115 days ago
That looks great Tom. That is a beautiful piece of wood for sure.
grampata
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69 posts in 636 days
posted 115 days ago
I really like it….alot
Ben Kahmann
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232 posts in 165 days
posted 115 days ago
Beautiful slab table, I love figured maple
-- Ben Kahmann Dayton, OH
zarno
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26 posts in 300 days
posted 115 days ago
Fantastic job Im nuts about live edge stuff and a big Nakashima fan Im also nuts about wood with crazy figure! Wow did you ever find a great piece. Wish there were a few more pictures.
kolwdwrkr
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2248 posts in 483 days
posted 115 days ago
she’s a beauty
-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~
JoeinDE
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100 posts in 216 days
posted 114 days ago
Nice table.
-- A bad craftsmen blames his cheap #$%ing tools
Dick, & Barb Cain
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7033 posts in 1192 days
posted 114 days ago
Very nice craftsmanship, & beautiful.
Welcome to the competition.
-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1
TampaTom
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69 posts in 646 days
posted 114 days ago
Hey, I’m just happy to be in it! :D
-- Tom's Workbench - http://tomsworkbench.com
Rudge
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39 posts in 515 days
posted 113 days ago
WOW !! is all i can say that is a stunning piece…
great job !
J
-- 'Original Rudge' Muskoka, Cdn
Rob Drown
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324 posts in 726 days
posted 113 days ago
Amazing. You actually added to the beauty of the wood!!! Wow
-- Sharp tools and thin whispy shavings make woodworking a joy.
DAN
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6438 posts in 876 days
posted 113 days ago
that is some wonderful figure … well executed
-- work from your heart and your spirit will live forever
a1Jim
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16684 posts in 470 days
posted 113 days ago
great wood super design
-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon
Lloyd Davies
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83 posts in 219 days
posted 113 days ago
Very nice piece of wood and it loos well finished. I really like the simplicity of the design.
-- Northern California http://www.lloydus.com
scottb
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3402 posts in 1220 days
posted 110 days ago
beauty. Thanks for sharing the insight into the process as well. Gorgeous top, well utilized. love the legs too. You might have just talked me out of through tenons for the natural edged (50+ year old walnut) coffee table top I’m planning.
-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/
Blake
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2748 posts in 767 days
posted 107 days ago
Nice table. Thats a gorgeous slab of maple. I had never seen George Nakashima before. I really liked seeing his website.
-- Check out my new website! http://www.blakeweberwoodworking.com