RIISKA DESIGN BLOG

 

Wing Table

 

Wing Wood

 

This is the raw material I used to make the wing table.  It is red oak recycled from the LAX Airport in Los Angles.  I think the boards were used like a chair rail to line the edged of the terminal so people didn’t dent the walls with their rolling carts and over-sized bags.  I guess you could call it a cart rail.  All of the oak looked like the top piece when I started working with it.  They were finished with a golden oak stain with a clear film finish.  They were not strait so I joined and planed them to start the creation process.

 

Clean Wood

After joining and planing all four sides of each board I am left with this beautiful wood.  Who would have known all this gorgeousity was hidden under that snotty looking finish?  The next step is to dado the boards to fit the splines.  On the edge of each board I cut a groove for the spline to fit in.  To do this I use a set of table saw blades that stack together to form one thick blade.  Together these blades are called a dado stack.  

 

Mahogany Splines

 

In this shot I have laid the mahogany splines on top of the oak.  If you look close you can see the channel, underneath the mahogany, where the splines will fit it once they are trimmed down.  One trick to using splines to join your work is to use a block plane to remove the material in the middle of the spline.  Essentially you are creating a spline that bows in towards the middle on both sides.  This trick enables the two different woods to expand and contrast at their naturally different rates without separating the joinery.  Essentially, the spline wood is thinner than the channel in the middle of the table so it has room to expand preventing it from pushing the joint open when it moves.  The ends of the splines are full width so the joinery on the edges is perfect.  This is a cool trick.  SHHH don’t tell anyone.

 

Dry Fit Table Top

 

Once I fit the splines I clamp the table up without glue to make sure everything fits perfectly.  It seems like an extra step but gluing without dry fitting is a mistake I will not make again.  Wiping glue with a wet rag out of all of the crevices of a piece because it does fit is a task worse than being poisoned by your Aunt Maryann when she didn’t cook the shrimp well enough.  Sorry, I was thinking about my brother who got food poisoning over the 4th of July.  Poor guy.  After dry fitting I apply glue and clamp the table top up and let it dry over night.  

 

Wing Table Glue Up

 

The challenge is applying the glue and clamping it before the glue dries.  The glue starts to set in 1/2 hour so I have to work fast.  When clamped the extra glue seeps out of the joints.  This is also the only chance I have to make your table top flat because it has no skirt.  Therefore, take the time to put a strait edge over the piece to check for bows.  If the top is bowing up loosen the clamps a little or add a clamp to the opposite side to balance it out.  This is kind of an art form.  If you don’t get it right your table will look like a Frisbee half melted in the sun.

 

Hand Chisseled Leg Joint

To attach the leg I carve a joint through the table top.  The joint is shaped like a wedge.  The legs fit through the bottom and are wedged in place so they will never come out.  I also carve into the bottom of the table so the wider part of the leg inerts into the bottom as well.  These creates another level of strength to the joint as well as creating a perfect seem worthy of crawling under the table to look at it.  The joinery is so tight it looks like the leg just grew out of the top.

 

Attaching the Legs

 

The legs are slid in from the bottom.  Then I flip the whole table over and bound in the wedges.  If you look close you can see the slots I cut in the top of the legs to accept the wedges.

 

Under the Wing

 

I love the way this table looks from all directions, especially underneath.  To me a table has to makes sense from every angle.  Putting a skirt on a table creates a black hole where the table just doesn’t make sense.  Traditionally skirts are used to give support to thin table tops.  Like framing a deck they are the solid surface you screw your deck boards into.  However, by carefully crafting the table, and not skimping on the thick wood that makes up the top I find the skirts to be an unnecessary nuisance.

 

Drawing the Curve

 

To create the illusion that wing table is concave at the bottom I had my room mate Mat, who draws beautifully, pencil in a slight curve which I carved into the edge of the table.  Combined with original stained and routed edge I left on the wood it creates the illusion that table gets thinner towards the middle and thicker on the ends.  It really makes this heavy oak table seem light like a wing.

 

Hand Planing the Top and Leg

 

To finish the top I used a hand plane.  First I flatten the entire top cross grain with my Grandfathers Baily #5.  Then I clean it up with the grain and finally I use my block plane(shown here) to do the final smoothing.  Plus some touches with a scraper make my knots shine.  This is my favorite part of the whole process.  The sound of the plane cutting the wood is amazing and quite soothing.  Plus the lazy curls of wood are the by product instead of nasty dust that clogs the lungs.  

 

Lazy Curls of Wood on the Floor

 

The hand planed finish is far superior to sand finishes because the razor sharp blade cuts the wood smooth instead of using abrasives to gnaw the wood down.  Using an orbital sander, which is industry standard, cross cuts the grain.  It damages the wood and gives the piece a duller finish.  If you look close at an orbital sanded table you can see little circular scratches in the wood where the hand planed table has a unique depth to it allowing you to see deeper into the grain.

 

Finished Wing Table

 

The final step is a hand rubbed finish that takes 4 hours a day for four days.  Becasue the oak is a porris grain more coats were neaded for this piece.  The entire piece took me 96 hours to complete. It is available for sale on this blog or if you are in LA you can stop by the Ford Brady Gallery at the Kim Sing Theatre located at 720 Noth Figueroa St. 90012 in down town Los Angles.