Walnut 36″l x 14″w x 16″h
I found the top of this table leaning by itself against the wall by the garage door of a lumber supplier, Hearne Hardwoods, in Oxford, Pennsylvania. The top may have been one step from the firewood pile because of that knot, which is usually trouble for woodworkers and, perhaps until recently, not exactly cherished by people wanting furniture. But I liked the way it looked, and I pictured it as the top of a coffee table. So did the client, who selected the wood among about a dozen other slabs, some more pricey and with more, for lack of a better word, pedigree. I like the negative space of the split in the knot, which, on the underside, I stabilized with a number of splines. Also, as with other free-edge tables, I textured the edges, not so much to resemble bark but simple because of the increased visual interest.
