Pine and Spalted Maple Table

My sister asked for a narrow side table for her birthday, “a drawer and a shelf would be nice too, but nothing special” she says, and sent me a photo of one she liked… I took it upon myself to use hand tools as much as possible, as I wasn’t in a hurry and no promises were made as to which birthday it would be ready for !!

Made of pine with a maple top, I burned electrons when sizing the top, making the breadboard ends, and trying out my new hollow chisel mortiser…. almost everything else was by hand, including making the tapers (pic 3&4), flattening the top (pic 5), and cutting half-blind dovetails. Rails are mortise and tenon, and the shelf is let into the legs and also fastened to a rail that goes from front leg to back, and is very sturdy. Drawers are made from vertical grain pine from Menards and finished with shellac.

The top was a pleasant surprise, with the nice spalting underneath a layer of dirt and grime and it handplaned much easier than I thought it would. It has an interesting wormhole texture throughout. I treated it with insecticide after cleaning out the ‘tunnels’ with compressed air to nix any more burrowing activity. Finished with Minwax Natural stain, linseed oil, and topped with gloss poly. I didn’t think the ‘natural’ stain would make any visible difference, as it looked practically clear….. but test pieces showed a warmer hue to the maple where it was applied.

Finally got it to her this weekend, she loved it ! Thanks for looking!
c

-- Carl, Iowa