Best-sellim

Plant Stand

A spline-and-miter joint ensures this elegant table will remain stable.

When I started building custom furniture many years ago, I discovered the best way to advertise my work is to let people see it. To do this my wife and I attend art and craft shows, and our local farmers' market. We take along a selection of j ewelry boxes and other small items that we feel show the quality of our work.

At the start of each year we try to come up with something that our regular customers haven't seen before. And we hope it will be something that they will want to have for themselves.

A couple years ago, I designed this small table. Because all my work is one-of-a-kind and made using solid hardwoods, I needed something I could build in about four hours to make it affordable for my customers. This table is the result.

Since its first outing, I have made a considerable number of these tables. I have made them from native hardwoods and imported exotics, including teak, mahogany and purpleheart. The tops have been round, square, octagonal and other custom shapes. The legs have been tapered, straight and some have been Queen Anne style. All of these variations have an elegance all their own.

by Barry Black

Barry Black builds custom furniture in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, using hand tools as much as he can. His passion for antique hand tools has become a sideline and he sells them on his web site, blackboardcreations.com.

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Popular Woodworking April 2005