I just looked back in my email, and it was April of 2011 when I got a call from a buddy who does landscape work — Mike Foster, who I'd highly recommend if you're looking for someone in Seattle to do that sort of thing — he had just taken down a small cherry tree, and did I want it to mill into lumber? How could I say no?
![](TreeTrunk.jpg)
The trunk was maybe 9-10" in diameter, with bigger knobby bits at each end, and about 5 feet long. First thing I did was saw off each end. I think even then I envisioned milling a relatively thick plank from either side of the center and opening them up like a book (hence the term "bookmatched boards") to make a table of some sort. So off with the knobby bits.
![](CrossSection.jpg)
And on to sawing the planks!
![](RippingTrunk.jpg)
That represents about an hour of concerted hand saw work, and it wasn't getting easier. The rip saw I have has far too many teeth-per-inch for this kind of rough milling, and I didn't have 12-16 more hours of sawing in me. I did what anyone in 2011 would do, and borrowed a friend's chainsaw. That did the trick!
![](Boards.jpg)
After painting the ends of the board and letting them dry in the basement for quite a few months, I started in on smoothing the rough-sawn planks into more refined boards.
![](Smoothing.jpg)
Once again, I reached a point of frustration with my hand-tools. I'm sure I could have gotten these boards totally flat with hand planes, but I was pretty happy to throw them in the car and run them through a friend's power planer, which made short work of milling.
![](Planed.jpg)
You can see in the picture above the smaller boards we screwed to the bottom of the cherry planks to provide a flat reference for the planer. Worked like a charm.
From an offcut, I made a patch for a section that had a saw cut running through it. I cut the patch first, then traced it onto the board, used a chisel to define the edges, and hogged out the waste with a router plane. Though it doesn't blend in very well in this photo, it does more so in real life, especially after both pieces have oxidized a bit more and with finish applied.
![](Patched.jpg)
With the table top more or less prepped, I set to designing a base. Sketchup proved the perfect tool for noodling on legs/bases. Here's what I came up with.
![](Sketchup.jpg)
A while back, I picked up some lumber on Craigslist from a guy who was moving. It wasn't a lot of lumber, nor was it a lot of money, but it was good looking stuff, and a reasonable deal. Part of that haul was a nice piece of 8/4 cherry, which I cut up into parts for the base. Here are some legs-in-progress.
![](LegsRough.jpg)
And a test fit, to make sure things were headed in a good direction.
![](TestFit.jpg)
You can see the half-lap joint on the bottom rail here, and the dovetails cut in the top one.
![](LegsFinished.jpg)
And here's the base all put together, with stretchers between the leg assemblies.
![](BaseAssembled.jpg)
I started the finishing process with the top separate from the base. This was the first time I'd used Tried and True Original Wood Finish, which is a combination of linseed oil and beeswax. Jury's still out on durability, but I do like the way it looks!
![](Finishing.jpg)
And then I attached the top pieces with screws, and filled the screw holes with plugs (later to be sawn flush).
![](Plugged.jpg)
A few more coats of finish later, and... ta da!
![](LivingRoom.jpg)
Definitely happy with how this one came out! And also maybe a little sad to displace one of my first woodworking projects. But it'll find a good home, somewhere, somehow.