Side table – Do the Twist

I felt like making something with dovetails again. A good exercise in pure artisanal furniture making. At a fair I saw a nice example of a three-legged table with multiple dovetails. I chose oak, wengé and pear wood as these make a nice contrast.

As always, a woodworking project starts with accurately marking the wood – in this case the tails. And then sawing and chiseling until the tails are straight and square. Next, the so-called houses are made. These also have to be accurately marked, sawn out and chiseled out. A tail has to fit exactly in its house. And that requires a lot of fitting, chiseling and even more fitting and planing. Until everything fits.

I did give the design my own twist – literally. Instead of color matching the tails and houses, I rotated them. This makes the decorative dovetails stand out even more.

The place in the middle where the three types of wood meet is not very strong, so this table cannot be used as a stool.