Newbe with some wood!

[RorieT]

Hi folks,

I have moved into an old cottage and i am trying to bring back some of its cottage looks. I really like natural wood - the fire surround is natural, i have bowls etc round the house too. I have been looking at natural wood coffee tables for a while....and as if my magic, my friend has a fantastic piece of wood which i would love to make into a coffee table. (i will try and get a photo tomorrow).

I have NEVER done anything like this before. I do a lot of DIY but nothing crafty like this. I have the usual DIY tools including a table saw and a chop saw. I also should mention that i dont have any more wood like this.....there is only the one piece!

I would therefore like to make this as simple as possible, but look as good as possible! Can you guys give me some ideas for what i could use for legs for the table? Here are a couple photos of what the bit of wood looks like along with some legs i think look good. I am open to new ideas and suggestions.....

Also, how do i treat the table to give it that high gloss look? Would i treat the bark with the same thing? Any risk of the bark coming off?

 

[Greedo]

First of all welcome to the forum. Kind of crap that on your first post 149 have viewed and not one person had the decency to say hello. So Hello

What you're asking is not my back. I don't make that type of furniture and wouldn't want to give you the wrong advice regarding the bark as I have never made a piece with the bark still on. Plenty on here make stuff like it though and I'm sure someone will give you some advice.

Good luck

 

[alex8_en]

Hi welcome to the forum!!! From my point of view hardest part will be planing/thicknessing a piece that large, you will have to be very systematic with hand tools or build router sled that is if you already don't have access to 20+ inch planer thicknesser;-) best of luck anyway, looking forward seeing wip

 

[RorieT]

thanks for the replies. I am not even sure what a thicknesser is! Is it different from a normal planer? If it helps, the wood is already cut flat and i think it will just need a sand down!

Any thoughts about the complexity of legs? Any other ideas of what i could do?

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Hello, welcome, etc, etc.

I think I'd be a bit daunted by the glass option, not sure how to attach it. I quite like the idea of using your wood as the top, supported by a simple (contrasting) frame as in the second picture. But if rustic is what you want and the top is thick enough, you could go for the "bodger made" look and turn (or even rive) 4 legs and fit them into drilled holes. This need not look as crude as it sounds - I rather like Adrian McCurdy's work, for example.

 

[Jacob]

http://www.woodworkuk.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 45#p101645

 

[RorieT]

different forum, same people eh! haha

I posted on both as i wasnt sure which was most active, and also becuase more people generally means more ideas and help

 

[gwr]

Hi Rorie and welcome as you will see I'm more of a lurker than poster.I have seen the type of top you are going to use a few times and they can look realy good I have saw them with a biggish log at either side for legs used as a coffee table and also with branch type legs but I would think you would have your work cut out finding such branches that split into two or three to form V type legs.Im sure someone will be along here that knows more about this kind of work than me.
I'm just more a site construction chippy but some on here produce fantastic work if I am ever half as good I will be happy. Good luck