Making Silk Purses Out Of Sow's Ears

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By now you know I've stumbled on a quarry of old wood, salvaged from a hundred year old house.

I have used the chestnut to lay a floor, build kitchen cabinets, two nightstands, a coffee table, a 4x8 foot dining room table, a vanity, many knick-knacks and trays, and the latest project is a shaker style serving table.

First you've got to remove the nails, then one hundred years worth of crud from the grooves.

Then choose the better sections of the wood that does not show termite damage, is badly twisted or bowed.

Very little wood is this bad.

After I designed and formulated a plan of attack (mostly in my head), I start building the sections. The tapered legs came first, the front next, followed by the rest of the box, (sides and back). Then the shelf ten inches off the floor, and finally the top. All is pocket-screwed and glued together.

The table top I created out of various woods that were originally in the wainscoting (walnut and some rose colored wood that no one recognizes), and chestnut flooring. Not all the wood used is the same thickness. The old wainscoting is just a bit thicker than a half inch, while the flooring is a heavy one inch thick. I glued the thinner woods to some old larch boards to get a more substantial thickness. After that, I cut the pattern boards into two inch strips, and their various lengths.

The entire top is biscuit-glued. Squeezing in four directions was a nightmare.

Lots of gluing, sanding, staining and varnishing later, I gave birth to what some folks call furniture.

Notice the random width flooring the piece is on. Tongue and groove chestnut, honey oak stained.

The top has four coats of 'Hard Rock Table Top Finish'. Super hard and super shiny.

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