Table Joinery

The river birch console table is beginning to take shape. Above, the tabletop is out of the clamps and is showing a bit of the tree’s character in the form of a few knots. I searched for the straightest and clearest parts of the tree for the legs and the top, but nonetheless, a few knots made their way to the show surfaces.

Now it’s time for the joinery. I’ll be using floating tenons throughout the piece. Here I’m cutting staggered mortises for the stretchers.

After all the mortises were cut, I milled some floating tenons and began fitting them to the mortises.

With the main stretcher in the bench vise…

… I fit the floating tenons.

After dry-fitting the joints here, I moved on to the other end.

The stretcher assembly is fully dry-fitted.

Next, I went through the same process to fit tenons between the stretchers and the legs. Below, the complete table support structure is dry-fitted.

Now for a sneak peak at the complete table. This is what the table is like before I begin applying edge treatments to the tabletop and before I shape and taper the legs.

Next time, leg shaping.

Hej då!

Craig