Nearing Completion

I've taken far longer that I had originally planned to post up the latest progress of the Kane Tsugi bow front table. When I finally got back into the shop I had the table case finished up and assembled in no time. Once that was done I could focus my attention on top and just how was I going to address the bow in the front edge and still accomplish the Kane Tsugi?

After several hours of deliberation it turned out to be just as straight forward as the other joints in the top. Ultimately I did have to change up the flow of the joint; moving from a side to side flow as in the original side tables into a front to back. This was forced mainly out of the limitations of being able to machine the joint cleanly on the wider plank that was necessary to accommodate the bow in the front. Overall this is of minimal impact to the piece but definitely gives it a different flow.

I also side stepped tradition a little as I completed the case of the table before completing the drawers. Historically on curved pieces such as this, where the bowed and banded drawer front becomes a fixed size from the get go, the drawers were completed and the case built around them. In my case I knew I had the drawer fronts sized and set, there was no changing this without starting over. I was able to take the width of the drawer fronts and use this to size the table case openings and ultimately size the table. Not a huge deviation from tradition but more of my reflection of Bill McDowell and his going "gonzo" way of working from time to time. I find myself following this style of wood working more and more as of late. It seems to leave things open for interpretation and allow who knows what to occur...and usually it results in a far better piece than a true structured paper design to product.

You can see in the pics above that I continued with the Asian theme arched rails just as in the earlier side tables. I also added a little something extra to the legs and banded them with some wenge and quartersawn bubinga. It should give some nice flow to the piece and draw the eyes through out it.

The top is a bit oversized as I wanted this to be a true table, so there is about 2" in overhang.

The project is proceeding fairly smoothly now. The drawers have been built and the top is finished. The drawer supports did give me some trouble, requiring two different versions to be produced but it all worked out in the end. Just a part of working gonzo I guess. The piece is now in finishing and should be completed sometime in the next week or so. I think it's going to turn out better than expected. It is a bit larger than I had anticipated or even planned, but I think it's going to be good.