Mike Bray

Mike Bray says "It is an Arts & Crafts inspired piece, without being a slavish copy of any one person's work. It is not a Greene & Greene table, or a Stickly, etc. The table was originally designed to be the dining table in our home, and it was going to be very big. When I no longer needed a dining table, I redesigned it to a smaller scale, and made a lot of structural changes to simplify construction. Another change is that that the table is no longer for me, but will go in a gallery soon.

There are five main parts: the top; the two leg assemblies; and the two stretchers. The top is glued up from five boards plus the breadboard ends. The ends are attached with large tenons in oversized mortises that allow for seasonal movement of the wood. Drawbore pins keep the breadboard ends tight to the table. The leg assemblies are constructed with floating tenons. The stretchers attach to the leg assemblies with tusk tenons. Because of slight variations in the mortises, each tenon is fitted to one specific mortise, so every tenon is labeled. This makes re-assembly a no-brainer.

The base is made up of the leg assemblies and the stretchers. The top attaches to the base with four sliding dovetailed keys. There are no metal fasteners anywhere in this table, but when assembled it is rock solid, and allows the wood to move with humidity changes as needed.

The table solid cherry throughout, except for the tusk tenons and decorative plugs. The tusk tenons are walnut, and the plugs are from some very dense hardwood I pilfered from the trash at my shop."

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