Single board dining table

[shuggy]

Hello.
I'm just back from holiday in Mallorca, and the villa I stayed in had some nice furniture. One piece I was interested in was a 3.7m x 1m x 50mm (approx) single board dining table which was beautiful.

I'm pretty inexperienced in woodwork and to me this seemed quite unusual, as most table tops I've seen have been laminated single boards.

Can anyone share any insight ? Is this more common in warmer climes? I think it was a reasonably old item, as the owner said he bought it from an antique house.

Thanks!

 

[custard]

You've got good taste!

The problem with finding 1m wide boards is that they're as rare as hen's teeth and when you do track one down they're very expensive. Surrey Timbers has a cracking elm slab in at the moment that fits your description...at a price!

http://shop.surreytimbers.co.uk/epages/ ... oducts/SE1

I've made a few pieces with single boards of this scale, no problems in a shared workshop where help is at hand, but now that I'm a one man band I think long and hard before taking on a project this big, it's too big for one guy to move and everything has to be done by hand because the machinery large enough to deal with these monsters doesn't exist outside of industry.

 

[shuggy]

Wow, yes that's an eye-watering price! He did say it took 3 guys to manhandle it into the room!
I assume with a board that size you don't need to worry too much about movement?

Thanks for the info!

 

[Mar_mite]

I was down at surrey timbers today, they have loads of great pieces that are a bit more reasonably priced. It's an amazing place. You could join two pieces together, it would look dramatic, but be easier to machine/handle.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I remember seeing at school a 12' x 12" x 1" board of elm that was kept purely because one end was very nearly at a right angle to the other. That aside, if I had the money and the room I'd pay that sort of money for a piece like that, and so would swmbo.

 

[custard]

I assume with a board that size you don't need to worry too much about movement?

It's the reverse I'm afraid! Firstly kilning a thick board is always problematic, 50mm is the upper limit for reliable kilning. Yes, you can kiln way thicker, but it's tricky to get right, especially as a board this big should have been air dried for a minimum of three or four years before kilning; maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. And then if a board this size takes it into its head that it wants to move, well there's not much that would stop it!

 

[dickm]

Are you sure it was one piece, solid timber? Even if it's an antique, the "old boys" didn't rule out veneering on a more stable, multi-piece, core.

 

[SteveF]

i am just having a piece of beech turning into bowl blanks
not quite that long though
2.8m x 1.2m x 120mm

i never even thought of it as a piece of furniture

Steve

 

[acewoodturner]

John Boddy's were the experts in drying really big slabs. I used to buy 65mm thick kiln dried oak for some repeat projects. In the shed I used to go in some of the slabs were easily 6m long and quite wide. Their 65mm thick oak was expensive but with very little waste.
RIP John Boddy's

 

[marcros]

i presume that you could air-dry a slab like that. It may take some years, but if it was stacked somewhere and left it would be less risky than trying to kiln it.

 

[shuggy]

I'm pretty sure it was a single board - I took a couple of pics which I'll try to upload....

 

[mouppe]

Not wishing to hijack the thread but to complement it; these amazing boards are for sale in my local lumber yard at the moment. The left board is black walnut 24" wide by 11' long by 2 1/4" thick. C$1700 (about 800 pounds). The right board is cherry 26" wide, 19' long, 2 1/4" thick. C$1900 (920 pounds).

I just hope they get made into something as single pieces and not broken down. I have been very close to pulling the trigger on the cherry but it's a heart-over-head instinct.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you wish to see large timber furniture made from it, visit the kauri pine museum in Matakohe, North Island, New Zealand. It's worth a google - there's a good YouTube feature on it.
Or go to the kauri museum in Kaitaia - have a look at the stairs going up through a tree trunk. :shock:
I've seen both - the former is better for history, the latter is more modern.