Barney Rubble Table

Barney Rubble Table 1

I've spent 12 hours of Memorial Day conjuring my dear old dad and brothers by making a piece of furniture. I had planed some heavy 6 quarter rock maple with a high amount of tiger figure last year. I've been storing these same boards for nearly 20 years in various places. I broke down and make a low ( 13 inch high) and longish (42 inch long) by a ameboid natural tree edge at roughly 24 inches deep.

The leg angles are at 8 degrees, which matches many of my other pieces. I have to still make the keys to lock the trestle into the legs... so another hand cut mortise for each side. You can see how I've had to offset the trestle and legs to accommodate the table top shape.

I didn't work from plans... I just eyeballed the table top shape and that dictated the leg and trestle offset. You really have to rely on your gut when working with the natural edges. You can't force the tree to be a perfect rectangle if it grew on an angle. It's not for everyone, but it's the way I choose to design. It becomes a process similar to sculpture and "in the moment", rather than plans and drawings.

The table top is due for some heavy epoxy flowed into the bug/water rot regions. I really like to keep as much of nature's hand in my work, so I'm using clear epoxy to show the bug excavations below the surface. I still need to buy the epoxy, so the "Barney Rubble Table" won't have a finish on it for a few more weeks.

All the heavy work is done... as the cost of one 30 year old circular saw.