This piece is special to me, because I harvested the walnut myself: My dad and I were invited to a downed walnut orchard about a year ago, and as we gathered up some big chunks to take to a miller, I also threw a small stump into the back of my car to take home with me. I used a chainsaw to cut this slab out of it, my router sled to smooth it, and my planer to finish the job. (I also bought the cherry rough-cut and planed it myself, which was another first).

I'm REALLY happy with how it's turned out, especially the color of the cherry and how the curves of the legs go with the curves of the top. The walnut grain is "deep" in places too, with a beautiful iridescence. The only thing I would change is making the legs just a little wider: As it is, it's easy to tip over. I found that out too late, at which point any fix would have required a complete do-over. And given the location of the table, it's not going to be kicked or bumped very often, if at all. But we live and learn, right?

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Nice work

To stabilize it better you could add a couple stringers to the base of the legs as wide as the top, and it would look like you planned it that way

Stringers? A quick google search doesn't make the meaning immediately obvious to me. What would that look like?

Stringers is a pretty vague description, join two pieces of wood about two inches wide and as long as the top is wide to the bottoms of the legs, it would make it less top heavy

Very nice and I agree with the stringer suggestion. I've done that before as an afterthought and nobody noticed. Or at least they didn't let on if they did.

David

So it would be a piece running across the bottom of each leg width-wise? I might try that, but it might then make the table a bit too high for the spot it was made for.

Fancy!

I make necessary to fix a screw up design changes all the time. Usually I’m the only person that knows.

Nice!
what Finish used? poly on top?

Mackman,

Put the stringer on the side of the leg, not the bottom. On the side, even with the bottom, length the same as the width of the top, thickness to match the thickness of the leg, width of the stringer (top to bottom after it is installed) 2" or so (I would do some fraction of the width of the legs).


JamesTinKS

Yeah, semi-gloss. I thinned it a bit so that I could wipe it on: It takes a lot longer, but I feel it offers me a lot more control over drips when finishing vertical surfaces.

Thanks for the advice! I actually considered that, and I may still do it. It's only tipped a few times, each time as a result of my 2-year-old son trying to climb on it, so right now I think attaching stringers to the side would just result in broken stringers the next time he tries it! :)