The Winter Project: Complete!!

Each year, Ben decides on some type of woodworking project to keep himself occupied during the winter months.  In the fall, we had found an interesting looking table in a magazine and I suggested he try to make it.  So, he went out and purchased the wood with no problem as we have a couple of places right near us that supply many different types of wood and he new exactly what kind he was looking for.  

As you can see, the girls were a big help in assisting me with photographing!

The top of the table is made out of Butternut wood.  I had never heard of this type of wood before...so here is a bit of background information about it:  

Butternut (Juglans cinerea), also known as white walnut and oil nut, grows in a northern range from southern New Brunswick in Canada to the North Carolina mountains and west to eastern Minnesota. The tree never appears in stands, but occurs sparsely in rich, moist bottomland soils. A medium-sized tree, butternut generally grows 30-50' in height and to a trunk diameter of 1-3'. But in prime forest conditions, it can reach 80-100' and diameters of 4', For instance, the largest butternut on the Na tional Register of Big Trees stands 88' tall. At a distant glance, butternut resembles black walnut in shape, although it never grows as tall and tends to spread more. And the bark has a gray color instead of the dark brown of black walnut. The alternate, frondlike leaves are 15-30" long and have as many as 17 pointed leaflets, that on the underside, are sticky to the touch. Butternut trees produce oblong nuts with thick, leathery husks and sweet, oily kernels that squirrels love. The nuts drop simultaneously with the leaves in the the fall. Butternut's coarse, straight grained wood features a light tan color and a beautiful luster. At 27 pounds per cubic foot air-dried, butternut weighs less than black walnut. It's also softer, less durable, and not as strong. In stability, the two are equal.  (source:  google)

The legs of the table are made out of Oak.  The most difficult piece of this project was finding the glass!  We needed a particular kind of glass because we wanted it to be blue in color and the glass needed to be cut in a unique pattern to match the woodgrain...resembling water.  We were able to locate a glass cutter not too far away and he followed the pattern Ben made him perfectly.  We are very happy with the way that the table turned out.  The color of the glass is called Caribbean Blue and it is the exact color to match the cottage.  This table will be the new coffee table at the cottage.

When I relocate in a couple of months to the cottage...I will show some photos of how it looks there!

The table in the magazine was selling for $4000.  Ben was able to make it for about $300...not including the labor of course!  Now I just have to find something else to keep in occupied for the rest of the winter!