White and Red Oak Desk/Couch Table

My sister asked me to make her a desk to use for studying while she is living at my parents house. She asked for a desk that didn’t “bang up her knees” like traditional desks (that are closed in with drawers on both sides of your legs. My dad asked me to use the piece of white oak he has been hauling around for 35 years (that my mom’s dad gave him to use on a project before I was born) as the top. The rest of the table is made from red oak scrap I had lying around. The end result wasn’t too bad, considering the different species used.

I had originally planned to taper the inside corners of the legs with a smooth transition from straight to taper. I was on my last of 8 cuts when the leg slipped off the jig (without me noticing) and I cut far too deep. Instead of trashing the legs, I decided to cut all the legs again, but stopping ~ 1/3 from the top and creating a beveled transition. I set the saw at 45 degrees to cut the shoulders and then wasted away most of the remaining wood (because the saw blade left a crescent shaped chunk that needed to be removed) with the saw at 90 degrees, then finished it off with a chisel and sand block.

The drawers were made using a french dovetail.