Workshop notes
Short pieces on how our tables are made, and how to keep them for decades.
Craft
A joint that lets a solid top move with the seasons instead of cracking.
A solid top expands and contracts across the grain every year. The breadboard end caps that movement without gluing it shut: the tenons are pinned in elongated mortises, so the top can breathe while the ends stay flat.
Materials
How vein direction decides where a slab becomes a table top.
Travertine is read wet. We flood the block, mark the vein direction, and only then decide the cutting plane — vein-cut for a linear, quiet surface, cross-cut for the cloud-like figure.
Care
Fifteen minutes of maintenance that adds decades of life.
Hardwax oil sits in the timber rather than on it. Twice a year, sand lightly with 320 grit, wipe clean, apply a thin coat with a cloth, and buff off everything that has not soaked in after twenty minutes.