Yesterday I started preparing to make the top for my trestle table.
A few weeks ago I brought some boards down from the attic to give them time to aclimate to my shop. My cherry log has been drying for about a year and the 4/4 stock is down to about 10% moisture content now.
I trimmed the sap wood off of three of the boards from the tree and cut off the end where the tree started to bend. That left me with 8′ boards. The final table length should be about 84″ so I’ve go a little to play with still.
I’ve decided to slip match them since i’ll need three boards to make up the 36″ wide top. One of the boards has a little twist at the end that will create a bit of a challenge. In addition, the sawyer’s saw seems to have left a bit of a wavy pattern on the surface. These boards are exactly 1″ thick so it doesn’t leave me much slop to play with in getting them surfaced. Fortunately, I only really need one good surface. I feel a lot of hand planing coming on since these boards are all wider than my 12 1/2″ planer!
Today I’m going to finish milling the base and work on the joinery for those pieces.
Gunpowder Woodworks 