Starting 2019 off strong with a trip to the lumber yard to get stock for my new project: a dining table made with cherry. About 2 hours sorting through the stacks at Youngblood Lumber Company, then another 45 minutes cross-cutting the lumber in their parking lot to fit in my hatchback.
I chose cherry because I just read Christian Becksvoort’s new book, Shaker Inspiration. He talks about cherry being a good match between hardness and ease of working with hand tools. I’ve never worked with cherry before. Just from rough sawing, I can tell it’s softer than oak. I’m interested to see how it planes.
By the afternoon, I had all of the parts cut to rough dimension, ready for joining. The tabletop is going to be the most difficult part of this project by far. I’ve always struggled with keeping panel glue-ups flat. The top will be 7 feet long and 3 ½ feet wide, which is bigger than my workbench in both dimensions. I do have a support table at the same height as my workbench, so I should be able to figure something out.
You can follow my projects more closely on Instagram.