We’d re-decorated our large hallway and wanted a small coffee table for plants and ornaments to sit on. I decided to head to a local lumber seller to see if they had anything I could use.
I wasn’t too concerned with the size other than I wanted ‘small but chunky’. I attempted to sound confident and like I knew what I was talking about but they spotted my fraud early in the conversation. However, they were kind and pointed to a load of off-cuts under their huge workbenches. I rummaged while continuing to try to uphold the facade of knowing what I was doing. After manhandling a few big chunks out the way, I miraculously found what I was after. A rough sawn off-cut about 500mm long x 350mm wide x 50mm thick with a straight(ish) waney edge. They told me it was Oak and within 5 minutes, I’d paid a paltry £20 and proudly came home.
I’d read online how to smooth out a waney edge and purchased a Drawknife hand tool. This looks like a dangerous piece of kit but actually, it turned out to be quite safe in practice. The tricky bit was balancing the oak between my legs as I aggressively pulled the sharp knife towards me. Man it was hard work (probably because my technique was incorrect?) and this was only a small piece! I eventually had a finish I was happy with, smooth with no ‘snags’ but still natural looking.
All that was left was to aggressively sand the top, firstly with the belt sander (at 60 grit) that made light work of the riven surface and then the orbital up to 120 grit. I oiled the whole piece with Osmo Top Oil (2 coats) as I wanted to retain the original colour as much as possible and the table was only going to get very light use.
I purchased 4 steel legs off a trader on Etsy and screwed them into place easily.
The reality is, this isn’t my favourite piece of furniture but it’s functional and helps to add a natural softness to an otherwise large room.
- Oak = £20
- Legs = £59
- Total = £79
Wood Barn 