Woodworking, Occasional Table

I guess no news about our son is good news. He still seems to be staying the course. Holding my breath all the time but I feel much better now than I have for a long time. It is his cousins birthday parties this Saturday and we are all going. He is anxious to go and I know he will do better. At social events you can actually see progress now.



Woodworking, Occasional Table


This is a table that Mom requested to go at the end of the couch next to the wall. She wanted something to replace a popcorn can that I used to pile my wood magazines.

The wood is Jatoba, or commonly refered to as Brazilain Cherry. This is a common wood in South America like what you would consider oak here in the US. So I am not destroying the rain forest using these woods. As you can see the wood is slightly orangy brown in color. There is no stain on this piece. As it ages and is exposed to UV light it will slightly darken. Construction techiques involve half lap joints at the center of the stretchers. The stretchers are attached to the legs using mortise and tenon jointery. The round top is perfectly round, I made a jig for the band saw to ensure that there were no flat sides or it was oblong. I really like the old time finishes, in my opinion the new polyurethanes provide tremendous protection if it is needed. But the plastic look of these finishes turn me off. Due to the hardness of this wood I used a hand rubbed oil with multiple coats. On top of that I finished with a wax finish.

Jatoba is a very heavy and hard wood. Here is a comparison if you are not familiar with this wood. On the Janka Wood Hardness Chart, jatoba is ranked 2350, hard maple 1450, red oak 1290 and walnut 1010. Higher numbers are harder and usually heavier. Hit somebody with this table and it will not be breaking like you see in the movies. LOL This wood is nearly twice as hard as what wood baseball bats are made from here in US.