Several months ago my daughter and I were returning from picking up breakfast tacos and drove past a pile of wood left on the curb for bulk trash pickup. For those who know me, not much turns my head more than a stack of logs. Shocking (insert wife). Friends, one truck and six hands later, two beaut tree trunks happened upon my shop.
From there I chainsawed them to approximate thickness and then flattened them with a newly built router plane. After that it was hand tools and chopping out a few butterfly joints to keep the cracks form opening up any further. Then on to the lathe to turn some simple tapered legs. The resulting table is a little expected but I personally love the simplicity. The slab speaks for itself with the charming peek a boo from the legs.
Another reason I love working with wood, just as this table exemplifies, is that while the tree may be dead the spirit of the wood is not. It continues to live. It shifts, twists, expands and contracts as it ages and the seasons change. The tree's character thrives through creation.
