We start with the tabletop
When we start out the whole process to figure out how we want to use these boards
We have to identify where the flaws are, and where the potential issues are.
So we go around and we chalk each board individually, highlighting flaws, highlighting things that we think will be challenges.
Highlighting features that we want to emphasize as features in the final table.
It's not getting rid of the imperfections
It's getting rid of the imperfections that cause you, that draw your eye to them.
Or that cause you a physical problem.
What we're doing with the joiner is making the edge of the board absolutely flat.
And perpendicular to one of the surfaces of the board
Preferably the face surface.
And then we glue up the table top by making sure you have a nice glue edge so that you can't see the glue line once it's glued.
Once we get the tabletop glued up,
It's an approximate length and it's approximate width
We'll take it to exact width, and exact length
And then we'll take and model the edges.
Maybe we'll round them slightly, maybe we'll carve them slightly.
At that point, the tabletop is pretty close to being done.
We'll sit down and we'll fill each of the cracks and each of the pores with a mix of epoxy and colorant and filler and wood
And that will be your tabletop.
It will have some hand plane marks on it as we rationalize the surfaces to make them all level
We use a hand plane, it leaves nice marks
It makes you thing that it has been worked on by someone individually
Which of course, it has!
Once we've got the tabletop to size, then we know exactly how big to make the base for it.
The base consists of four aprons that run around the outside connecting four legs
And the legs themselves have to be turned.
There's no guarantee that the first leg is actually good
So we'll do a couple test legs first, then go into production on the rest of the legs.
Once that's all done, you glue up the base using the same PVA-type glue
You'll put together some "hold down system" to hold down the top to the base
Then it goes into the finishing area.
The base will get finished with a black milk paint with a solid clear coating on top of it.
Milk paint is really wonderful
It looks beautiful, but there's no durability to it
So when you put a clear coat over it, that provides the durability, and also gives you a good look.
We'll probably put a couple of coats on it and distress it slightly so that you'll be able to see one color through the other color.
The top will just have a clear coat
It will probably be very minimal, and it will probably be something like a short oil finish.
So, simple. Straight forward, more or less
And we have a table
