Beautiful piece!
Some questions from a would-be furniture maker:
Do you buy rough-cut/plane your own?
Where do you get mahogany?
Do you use a mortise attachment on a drill press, and/or a tenon jig?
The top is edge-glued, biscuited, splined, other?
What final finish?
Thanks HFWR.
I usually start with rough sawn boards that have been kiln dried, if I can find them. I like rough sawn boards because I can size each piece to the exact dimensions and spend less time worrying about warp and twist in a piece of planed-to-size material. I have a jointer and planer for working the rough sawn boards.
Mahogany lumber is readily available from most hardwood suppliers. A little browsing on the web should find one close to you. I buy some of my hardwood from
Willis Lumber Co., Inc in Washington Court House, Ohio. I also use local sources like
Woodworking Tools and Supplies | Wood Werks Supply Inc..
My stash of mahogany came from a old time lumber company that closed a few years in Columbus, Ohio. Some beautiful boards, some 14 feet long 14 inches wide and 1 1/2 inches thick and not a flaw in them.
For the leg/apron joints I used mortises cut with a Delta mortise machine. The tenons were cut with dado cutters on the table saw. I used the dado cutters for the tenons because the long side pieces were a little too long to stand on end with my tenon jig.
The top was just edge glued without any biscuits or dowels. There was plenty glue surface for a good strong joint since the top is about 1 1/16 inch thick.
Finish was H Behlen's Rock Hard Table Top varnish. Five coats with a lot of elbow grease wet sanding and rubbing out the final coat. I usually use spray lacquer on my projects but wanted a harder finish on the table top. The jury is still out on the amount of time the varnish takes compared to the harder finsih.
For the mahogany color I use a combination of water stains and Bartley's paste pigmented stain.
Ron
