My first "fine furniture" project

[sdj]

I'm no Norm Abrahms, but here is my first attempt at fine furniture. It's my own "modified" design. It's 30" high x 15" deep x 36" long.
It's the first time I have successfully done "mortise and tenon" joinery. Also the first time I have done tapered legs. I am not completely pleased with the finish which is a "General Finishes Gel Stain".

[dlminehart]

Looks pretty good to me. What drawbacks do you see to the finish?

[sdj]

"Raised the grain"

Even though it is an oil based finish, it seemed to "raise the grain", quite a bit.
I did not use any type of "sanding sealer", but perhaps I should have.

[John Hunter]

Looks good.

[Ken Massingale]

Looks great for a first or fifty'th. It's obvious you're not Norm, tho. I can't see a single brad nail, well done. ;-D

[Ken Weaver]

Nicely done - finish looks ok in the pics. Good joints!

[Pappy]

Either great looking piece or some trick photography!

[charliex]

Looks good to me too. As LOML says to me "You are your worst critic"; Get over it". I try but it's hard to do. If I build something for someone else I fuss over it till it gets picked up or delivered. They think it looks great but all I notice is the flaws. The good side to that is, maybe that's what makes us improve with each new project. Keep up the good work.

[mater]

That looks very nice to me. Good looking work.

[Wood_workur]

looks great. first time m&t jointery is trrickey. If you want a smooth (really smooth) finish, then put some poly on, and rub it out.

[lcm1947]

Well I can certainly see why you aren't happy with it so just go ahead and ship it my way. Wife would love to have it. I can only hope I'll ever build anything that nice. Finish looks fine to me but I know where you're coming from. Just not exactly what you thought it would look like but that's just something in your head. The rest of us think it's plenty fine. Great looking piece of furniture.

[drumpriest]

I'm with Alex, put "some poly on", like 8 coats, then rub it out. Looks like you did a great job to me.

[TheRic]

They say a carpenter never lives in a house he built, he sees every flaw.

My cousin always says "It adds character."

I agree with drumpriest & lcm 1947: Put 8 coats of poly on it and send it to me!

I think it looks great!!

[SARGE..g-47]

Nice job..........................

Might want to raise the grain in advance next time as you mentioned and sand it. Sanding sealer will work or a lest expensive method is to just wipe it with distilled water. The grain will raise and then final sand it. The distilled water you can buy in the drug-store has the minerals removed. That won't relate to staining as you would get with mineral rich tap water.

Regards...

[lrogers]

Great looking table! I haven't had the nerve to try tapered legs yet.