Garden Table Build Process
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Posted 8th June 2025
I mentioned in the last post that I had a thicker bit of sweet chestnut that I could use for the legs. This is that piece:
As you can see, it's quite a bit longer than my bench! It also has a rather long split down the length and lots and lots of knots, so it's probably not the best bit of wood all things considered. It is, however, quite a bit thicker than the other plank; this photo shows one of the thinnest bits (and the price I paid for the plank: £39.50):
Having examined it carefully, I realised that, despite this being a fairly big bit of wood, by the time I'd discarded the split and the bits with the worst knots, there isn't actually that much good (for which read "easy for a beginner to deal with") wood in there. It looked like the best I could do would be to cut it in half lengthways, then split the one with the crack up (using an axe in lieu of a froe):
I could then saw out four pieces (two from each end), all 500 mm long and 90 mm wide:
That left a fair amount of spare wood, but none of it looks especially useful given all the knots etc.
Three of them are good; the other has a knot hole in the end (which will get chopped off when I cut it to length) and a rather more problematic knot hole in the middle:
The same hole after roughly planing the face:
I think the only way I'm going to be able to deal with that is to cut it out and put in a graving piece (aka "Dutchman") of some sort. The decision I need to make is what shape to make the graving piece. The easy option would be (I think) to drill the knot out with a big Forstner bit and then turn a tight-fitting dowel to fit in the drilled hole. That would be quite straightforward I think and would minimise the amount of wood I'm removing from the leg. However, the grain will be completely different if I do that. The alternative would be to make a triangular graving piece from one of the many, many off-cuts this project has produced and then try to fit that into a matching cut-out. Thoughts, as always, are welcome...
Page 30 of 34
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