A woman had a maple tree come down in her yard and wanted a coffee table made from it. Her preference was no glue or screws, and a completely non-toxic finish. Because I could not come up with a good way to secure the top without screws, she compromised and let me use screws with cleats to attach the top.
I put this together for her. Interlocking mortise and tenons with cherry pegs, and a beeswax finish. The wax was melted, applied with a buffer until it melted into the pores, then the excess was removed by a light rubbing with fine steel wool. The cherry came from a chunk her mother has had for 50 years, which is from a tree in her yard when she (the mother)was a kid. It's a genuine heirloom piece.
Yes. I had the 4 1/4' long log cut into slices so that there were a number to choose from. Some of course, checked in the center, but there were a few that remained sound. Still about 8 slices left and we'll see what she wants to do with those.
I chiselled the outlines, drilled out much of the waste, then chiselled the sides and corners. Honed those chisels between each mortise.
"Not sure how long the beeswax finish will last. But if it *has* to be all natural I'll not sure what else you could do. Raw linseed oil, maybe? "
I presented her with samples of several options and explained the pros and cons of each. She really liked the 100% tung oil finish, but her partner really like the beeswax. Despite the fact that it was the most expensive finish, and the most difficult to revitalize.
Beautiful! Love the pegged/exposed/overlapping mortise and tenons. Slab top/live edge tables are so neat. Definitely a lot of interesting details to look at.
Not sure how long the beeswax finish will last. But if it *has* to be all natural I'll not sure what else you could do. Raw linseed oil, maybe? But the raw stuff takes forever to set up from what I've heard. Or maybe you could have convinced her that shellac is all natural. It kind of is... Just needs to be dissolved in alcohol. Lol.
I think that the hot wax finish will last a long time. Another hot friction buffing will melt the wax even further into the wood.
Me? I really like the profile design of the legs and the visible joints = interesting features to look at.
Just revisiting this post - I didn't really notice it at first, but I like that you shaped the ends of the table to look similar to the way that the live edge looks rather than just leaving the edges straight as I often see done. Very nice touch.
And all edges polished using a flap sander. All is smooth as silk to the touch.
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