Drop-Leaf Table

My web mistress is bullying me into the new age and insists I write this blog.

I've chosen to talk a bit about this simple, little piece: a swing-leg, drop leaf table in honduras mahogany with wenge accents and white pine drawer parts. It started out like most commissions: someone who knows my work approached me about designing and building something for her. She specified the size and the drop-leaf style, though left it to me exactly how it was to function. She also wanted a "rich" wood and a design that was simple and traditional, but with a details that rendered the piece distinctly new and handmade.

When my customer mentioned "rich" wood for this traditional piece, my mind went to cherry, walnut, and mahogany. I wasn't sure what I'd use, so I called up Myron at Irion Lumber in Wellsboro, PA. This is a wonderful lumber dealer with fantastic, personalized service: it's not cheap, but the material is always great and exactly what you need. Myron told me he had cherry and mahogany to fit the bill, but only the mahogany could yield one-board pieces for the top. I liked that idea.

Design-wise, I chose a traditional swing-leg style with a wooden knuckle-joint; I felt the size of the leaves (18" wide) needed the support. I decided on wenge for the spade feet and other accents: a bead along the bottom of the apron, and infill on the brass drawer pull (living on the edge!). I e-mailed an initial drawing to my customer -- normally I mail larger drawings, but she was keen to get the project moving as fast as possible. That initial concept included more slender legs, which the customer politely but firmly suggested needed beefing up. A few years ago I might have balked, but as I've grown older I realize that my customers have really good ideas, and anyway, I'm actually not as brilliant as I once fancied. Without a whimper I fattened the legs and after a couple of drawings she was delighted.

Among furniture people there's a lot of mystique surrounding the rule joint. That’s the hinged, curved edge where the leaves meet the top. If it’s not laid out just right, the joint binds or ends up with an ugly gap. The rule joint on this little table is, if I may say so (and I can -- it’s my damn blog) pretty good. Here’s a little secret: it’s really not very hard. In fact, it’s just like most things I do: it doesn’t require any real talent, just a willingness to be careful. Anyone with patience and practice can do good work. You could apply the sentiments of this entire paragraph to the knuckle joints on which the legs swing and the dovetails joints that hold the drawer together: both pretty well done, and in the final analysis, not really brain surgery.

If John Conte, who photographed this thing, is as smart as I think he is, you might be able to see the drawer front, which ended up with some cool wood. This was a case of happy serendipity: I had the whole table together and finished, and finally noticed the wood on the drawer front was not that nice; in fact, it was UG-LY, covered entirely with gray splotches. “What the hell am I going to do about that?” was my considered response, as it has been so many times in the past. The solution to this last-second dilemma was not difficult: I had some nice figured mahogany veneer laying around and after cleaning the finish off the drawer front, I glued on the veneer. Voila! -- instant class.

The pull is a brass turning from Lee Valley in Canada. It is simply and thoughtfully made; just glue a wooden plug in the recess in the front of the pull and turn it to shape. It looks like a little jewel.

All told, the table turned out pretty well: great wood, simple design, nice details. Not the flashiest thing in the old portfolio, but very satisfying indeed.