Table

Here is a table that I just finished.  This is really the first thing that I have built completely of my own design.  The legs are made from ash and the top is a piece of a walnut "crotch".  A crotch is where a tree trunk splits in two directions.  I wanted to leave the top as close to it's natural shape as possible, hence the knot hole.  It also has some really nice figuring.

Most of the work on this was in the legs.  The are joined with mortise and tenons and there are no mechanical fasteners. They start out at just under 2 inches thick at the top and taper in both thickness and width over their entire length to about 1/2 inch at the bottom.  The top sits into notches in the legs and it is free floating; there is no glue, screws, or anything else connecting the legs to the top.  I constructed it this way because of the grain pattern in the top.  Wood expands across it's grain so I didn't want to have a situation where the top would expand and crack with changes in moisture. 

The top itself is not flat.  It is twisted and the end where the knot hole is slopes in the opposite direction of the rest of the top, but it is very smooth.  I had to do this for two reasons.  The first being that the piece of wood I started working with was not very thick.  If I were to flatten it completely it would have ended up being about an eighth of an inch thick.  Secondly, I wanted to make sure I had the knot in the table top and I didn't want to plane away the figuring in the wood.  

 Here it is.  My photography skills leave much to be desired.

 In different lighting: