Àn Table in Blackwood

Àn Table in Blackwood

I can’t take too much credit for the design of this piece — this is a very correct classical Chinese form called an àn table (案), and it’s been around for millennia. What I can take credit for is the joinery. There’s no glue in this table. Every joint is hand-cut to lock together mechanically, wood against wood.

The legs splay and rake at a degree and a half, which sounds like nothing until you have to make it, and realise it means every mitre in the frame sits at either 44.25 or 45.75 degrees. Exactly. On all four corners. Or it won’t fit together.

It was very, very hard to pull off! Next time I reckon I’ll make it two degrees — so much easier.

The frame is Victorian Blackwood salvaged after a storm in Lismore. The panel is fiddleback Blackwood from a collection I acquired when a maker who’d babied it for forty years was closing his workshop. Timber like that is rare as hen’s teeth, and it deserved a table that would do it justice.

You can read about the construction of this piece here.

*710W, 355D, 775H. $4100. This one is SOLD. Available to order (I always have blackwood ready to go), or currently available in Silver Ash.