Possible to source this wood?

geneval2008

Hi all
I would love to have a table made, similar to the attached. Would it be easy enough to source a single piece of wood for the tabletop? It will be 100cm x 200cm approx and I would really love it as one piece. Please advise! Or indeed if anyone is interested in working on it for me please get in touch. I'm in Dublin and have no idea of prices etc so would really appreciate any advice. Many thanks.

the_syco

Pretty sure that's walnut. Have a read of http://dorsetcustomfurniture.blogspot.ie/2013/03/how-much-does-claro-walnut-slab-table.html

Can be expensive. If you don't care what type of wood is used, the price drops.

kadman

Judging by the size of that table, price would be dependant on a couple of things.

If you wanted the park bench construction methods doled out by some
on donedeal, then you could probably get it for less than 1k.

If you wanted an artistic well made piece of furniture, that crosses
the boundary from furniture into the artistic realm, and something to
be proud of and admired, then I would say north of 4k, and then possibly
some more.

Of course there is always diy;)

tabby aspreme

It looks to me to be oiled elm, it's not dark enough to be walnut, imho , native beech can have similar colours but has a finer grain , do you know the source of the picture is it European, American, or from Australia as a lot of their timber has reddish colouring.

magicbastarder

this appears to be the same table, filename states it's walnut.

http://www.gigisafety.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/walnut-live-edge-dining-table.jpg

magicbastarder

also - that table appears to be $12,000.

http://www.houzz.com/photos/8850637/Live-Edge-Claro-Walnut-Slab-Dining-Table-modern-dining-tables-los-angeles

this seems to be the manufacturer:

http://www.taylordonsker.com/furniture/

tabby aspreme

magicbastarder wrote: »

this appears to be the same table, filename states it's walnut.

http://www.gigisafety.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/walnut-live-edge-dining-table.jpg

I stand corrected, it's Claro walnut or Californian walnut,a highly prized timber, which is predominantly reddish in colour unlike European walnut

geneval2008

Wow thank you all so much for the very informative replies. I am already far more educated than yesterday! I appreciate that the image I uploaded is indeed a piece of art. Realistically, my budget won't stretch to that!
The type of wood is not of major importance to me - I hope thats okay to say - it was more the beauty of the single piece that appealed, as opposed to planks joined together as is seen normally. I understand the wood type has a huge bearing on price though. Are there any wood types more readily available at the size I'm hoping for? And less expensive than the claro walnut of the uploaded image?

recipio

The late George Nakashima specialized in tables like this, leaving a lot of bark and sapwood in the piece, You won't find Claro walnut in this country as its a graft of a Californian species ( for the nuts ) on to American black walnut.
Your only hope would be to find a cabinetmaker who has access to a sawmill to yield such wide pieces. A specialist sawmiller in the UK like Yandles might sell you a piece but its a lotta work. If only I had a bigger shed...............;)

ScumLord

It's going to be hard to get a table like that at any kind of reasonable price. You'd almost need to be talking directly to the sawmills to get them to cut the piece of timber for you which would be done outside of normal production. You'd probably even need to buy the entire trunk of the tree just to get that one single piece. Maybe get onto some tree cutting company, they might be able to contact you when something that would suit get's cut down.

There are plenty of people making tables around the country that might be able to do this for you. The table itself isn't that hard to make it's just getting that one piece of timber that makes it expensive. Maybe go to some car boot sales and the likes and you might find something similar.

If you want ideas for tables have a look at a guy on youtube called Jimmy Diresta. There are ways of getting something similar without finding one massive lump of timber. You could make the table the traditional way with planks and just edge it with irregularly shaped planks.

I'd also say that table would be a bit of a pain to actually live with because of the holes, looks lovely but it's going to see some things falling over.

kadman

So...Whats the budget.

And whats the design brief. And what would you be willing to sacrifice from the original

design brief, to meet in with your expected budget.

Striking timber supplies, is not the major obstacle here, if you know who to deal with.

Biggest hurdle I see here is trying to convince the buyer what they can realistically

expect to get on a restricted budget.

Unrestricted budgets remove all these pitfalls, and make both parties happy.

Basically how much bang do you expect for your limited bucks.

As the rolls royce scenario goes, if you need to ask the price..........you know the rest.

dathi

some guy on done deal selling these https://www.donedeal.ie/buildingmaterials-for-sale/native-irish-hardwood-planks/11450873

kadman

dathi wrote: »

some guy on done deal selling these https://www.donedeal.ie/buildingmaterials-for-sale/native-irish-hardwood-planks/11450873

Not suitable for the op for lots of reasons.

Main one being ,
Unless he knows about timber preperation, processing, storing,
and air and kiln drying, or solar.

He could end up with an expensive load of firewood in a short space
of time.

magicbastarder

interesting though, based on those prices, it'd be an absolute minimum of approx. €150 for the material for the tabletop - which i suspect is just bandsawn, so would still need quite a bit of processing?

kadman

magicbastarder wrote: »

interesting though, based on those prices, it'd be an absolute minimum of approx. €150 for the material for the tabletop - which i suspect is just bandsawn, so would still need quite a bit of processing?

Those prices are based on logsawn freshly cut. So they have no relevance at all really.
And remember kiln dried prices will double or treble logsawn prices.

And logsawn planks may end up different coming out of the kiln, than they went in.

geneval2008

Thanks again for the input everyone. The more I read, the more I can see it's really down to the type of wood and availability of cut pieces large enough for a tabletop. I suppose I innocently thought that all woodworkers had access to a supply of wood and they would tell me what's available and what the different types would cost. I certainly don't have the 4k budget mentioned above, so I can feel this one slipping away... Should I be googling sawmills and asking them what's their largest available pieces? Do sawmills sell kiln dried wood? As you can see I'm pretty clueless here. Btw if it makes any difference, it's just the tabletop I'm looking for, a family member is a metalworker and is going to do the frame/base for me. If I ever get that far!

CelticRambler

I'm nearly sure I saw a YouTube documentary on the making of that table a couple of years ago. If not that one, then one very like it. Getting the piece of wood was a huge challenge, cutting it was an even greater challenge. :eek:

I was looking into it at the time after inheriting a collection of 300-year-old oak trunks. They came into my possession because there's no-one within a hundred km with the equipment to slice them up and they're too knotty for ordinary firewood. I doubt there are many trees in Ireland that'd be old enough to have that girth, so I imagine you'd be looking at imported raw material and the cost of that alone would surely put it over 1000€ ?

tabby aspreme

CelticRambler wrote: »

I'm nearly sure I saw a YouTube documentary on the making of that table a couple of years ago. If not that one, then one very like it. Getting the piece of wood was a huge challenge, cutting it was an even greater challenge. :eek:

I was looking into it at the time after inheriting a collection of 300-year-old oak trunks. They came into my possession because there's no-one within a hundred km with the equipment to slice them up and they're too knotty for ordinary firewood. I doubt there are many trees in Ireland that'd be old enough to have that girth, so I imagine you'd be looking at imported raw material and the cost of that alone would surely put it over 1000€ ?

What became of your inheritance

recipio

A tree with a 4' diameter would be a few hundred years old and highly prized by the sawmiller. You are not going to get wide and beautiful wood at knock down prices.The tree slabs on donedeal would be worth loads more if they were heartwood instead of mainly sapwood.
A cabinetmaker might have something like 15" boards to make a conventional table but I suppose something would be lost in translation.

kadman

So we have gone now from a beautiful piece of craftman ship,
to a table top in 16 posts.

Thats why I asked for the design brief ect, as it clarifies things from the outset,
and no confusion.

When you,ve decided finally on what you need, and your budget for either the
finished tabletop, or material supply. let us all know. I have a few contacts that might be able to supply you a nice figurative piece.

And minimum dimensions you would be willing to work with.

geneval2008

Hi Kadman,

Well a design brief is pretty much impossible without at least some knowledge of the process, hence my post in the first place - "How would I get something like this made etc". Now given all I have learned here, I think its quite possible that my brief and budget probably don't match ! So, what I would like is:
A tabletop 90-100cm wide x 200cm long (can't be any smaller than this on length)
It need not be very chunky, a thickness of 20mm or so would be ideal
The material is a hard one given my limited knowledge of wood types, but in colour - preferably dark, ideally without huge variation and ideally without too many knots. I'm completely open to suggestion though. Right now I'm even wondering if a veneer of some sort would work. I saw some online that are 45cm wide which would only require 2 pieces. http://www.thewoodveneerhub.co.uk/pommele-sapele-veneer-293cm-x-47cm-115-x-18/
Really I'm just trying to achieve something different to a standard, planks in a row type of wood table. But maybe I'm mad thinking of veneers? Obviously I would much prefer a real wood tabletop.
Budget wise, this is happening as part of a kitchen/dining room renovation so I suppose if I really go for the tabletop then I would cut back on the flooring or lighting or something. But I had estimated a spend of €1000-1500 approx. Now I know that won't get me a work of art but I was hoping it would get me something a little different.
Thanks for all the help so far.

kadman

geneval2008 wrote: »

Hi Kadman,

Well a design brief is pretty much impossible without at least some knowledge of the process, hence my post in the first place - "How would I get something like this made etc". Now given all I have learned here, I think its quite possible that my brief and budget probably don't match ! So, what I would like is:
A tabletop 90-100cm wide x 200cm long (can't be any smaller than this on length)
It need not be very chunky, a thickness of 20mm or so would be ideal
The material is a hard one given my limited knowledge of wood types, but in colour - preferably dark, ideally without huge variation and ideally without too many knots. I'm completely open to suggestion though. Right now I'm even wondering if a veneer of some sort would work. I saw some online that are 45cm wide which would only require 2 pieces. http://www.thewoodveneerhub.co.uk/pommele-sapele-veneer-293cm-x-47cm-115-x-18/
Really I'm just trying to achieve something different to a standard, planks in a row type of wood table. But maybe I'm mad thinking of veneers? Obviously I would much prefer a real wood tabletop.
Budget wise, this is happening as part of a kitchen/dining room renovation so I suppose if I really go for the tabletop then I would cut back on the flooring or lighting or something. But I had estimated a spend of €1000-1500 approx. Now I know that won't get me a work of art but I was hoping it would get me something a little different.
Thanks for all the help so far.

Nice one, now something to get the teeth into.

bonzodog2

Perhaps you'd get it cheaper if you had 2 adjacent slices of a smaller log, rather than 1 big enough for the whole width. Then open them up like 2 pages of a book to create an axis of mirror symmetry down the long axis. Hope that makes sense!

CelticRambler

tabby aspreme wrote: »

What became of your inheritance

Still sitting outside on the other side of the lane. If I can manage to stay at home long enough to track down a mobile sawmill operator, I'm hoping to get the smaller ones sliced into boards of various widths and thicknesses, to be used for bookcases, maybe a bit of flooring and/or stair steps, and I want to make an 8x2.5m banquet table at some stage too. If the trunks aren't rotten, I've got the length and I'll be happy enough with two or three planks side-by-side!

Here's a piece of useless information for anyone interested in bits of trees: the French word used to describe a cleaned-up trunk bille comes from the Irish, bile (large or sacred tree). Haven't yet found out how peasant farmers in the middle of France came to be speaking Irish!

magicbastarder

when were they felled?

my3cents

CelticRambler wrote: »

...

Here's a piece of useless information for anyone interested in bits of trees: the French word used to describe a cleaned-up trunk bille comes from the Irish, bile (large or sacred tree). Haven't yet found out how peasant farmers in the middle of France came to be speaking Irish!

More useless information in forestry the trunk of the tree is often refereed to as the bole.

CelticRambler

magicbastarder wrote: »

when were they felled?

I have two lots, the first were felled in 2009 by a wood-merchant. He took all the "good" stuff (mostly for firewood) and let me take anything with "character" - i.e. huge knots, rotten cores, etc. Those are 1-1.5m diameter trunks.

A second lot was offered to me in 2010 by a contractor running behind on another job, whose only mission was to get the trees out of the field. They're skinnier (up to 0.75m) and various lengths from about 5m to about 10m. All oak.

I've a pile of miscellaneous "samples" about 50cm thick/long alternately cooking and freezing in front of the house to see what it takes to split them! So far, they're pretending to be indestructible!

Vexorg

Might be worth talking to this guy in Sligo http://www.mudandwood.com/natural-edge-wood-tables-and-chairs.html . His work is similar in nature to what you are looking for.

recipio

Have a look at www.rockler.com - they are selling walnut slabs but are a bit short of 2 metres.A sawmill this side of the pond might realistically have two bookmatched slabs from the same log and they would look great joined together.

MathsManiac

You could try Lisnavagh timber Project too. http://www.irishwoods.com/index.htm

I was doing up the house a couple of years ago and got two kiln-dried 3 inch slabs from them, one sycamore and one ash, for €300 a pop. Both between 60 cm and 90 cm wide and about 2.5 long (maybe a shade less). For that price, they planed and sanded them and applied one coat of oil.

Pictures attached. I was using them for bathroom countertops, so only needed one waney edge, so took the guts of 300 mm off each to use in other projects.

Finished articles (complete with Louis Mulcahy Pottery) attached too, in case you're interested.

Edit: some of those jpegs have rotated and i can't figure out why - the originals are fine on my hard drive; sorry!