hey this is cam with blacktail studio
and this week i struggle with an
extraordinarily rare piece of wood i'll
show you an easy way to make complicated
looking legs and i'll show you a
difficult way to finish wood like
granite
i was recently scouring the internet for
rare and cool slabs of wood and i came
across a supplier called hamilton lee
supply and i'd never heard of them
before and it said they were out of
houston but they had these insane slabs
of map of burl which i absolutely love
and i decided you know it's probably
worth it just to pay for the shipping
even if it has to come from houston i
did a little bit more research and i
found they have a second location less
than an hour from me so i drove up there
looked at the slabs myself they have
some of the slabs there some of the
slabs in houston they were awesome to
work with they even delivered the slabs
i ended up getting two slabs from them
they do have more left i do want to go
back and buy the rest of them so if you
are interested i'll include a link
because they were really cool guys to
work with and they can ship anywhere you
don't have to be local like i said they
have a shop in houston and in
battleground washington
despite how much i am struggling to move
this thing around this map of burl is
actually incredibly light but you know
what i turned 40 this year and i don't
have to explain myself to you guys and
other than being easy to move around
everything is more difficult when you're
working with a wood that is this soft
there are so many steps i'm gonna have
to take and that i will show you every
step just to make this a usable slab and
if you are wanting to try your very
first woodworking project save yourself
the time and effort and use a good
hardwood first if you want to try that
second woodworking project that's when
you can step your game up and do
something like this map a burl because
there are so many crazy cool things you
can do with it it just requires a lot
more steps so if you want to dip your
toe in the water try walnut try maple
something like that however when you
want to do something a little bit wild
i'll show you what i'm doing with this
slab and actually the sister slab from
it it's going to be pretty cool
some of you are probably already
furiously typing in the comments
wondering why would i cut up this big
natural beautiful slab into multiple
smaller pieces like i did here and i
actually have a solution for you that i
think is a good compromise for everybody
hamilton lee supply has many more of
these slabs from the very same tree and
if you pay them they will ship it right
to your front door where you could make
anything you want in the whole wide
world then you can even make a youtube
video on it show me how cool of a
project you made without cutting this
slab i will comment on it and let you
know wow i made an incredible mistake
cutting this slab up so if you aren't
pleased with what i did just follow
those steps and i think everybody will
be happy
what this slab is eventually going to
become as a desk so i really wanted to
harden this wood up make it suitable for
daily use and how i'm going to do that
is i'm mixing up some deep pore epoxy
with a little bit of acetone and that
acetone thins it out it does dilute the
strength of the epoxy a little bit i
believe don't quote me on that if you're
a chemist but what the acetone does is
it thins it lets it really soak into
those porous areas and you can see
the whole slide was pretty soft but that
really kind of yellow area in the middle
that was actually a little bit of water
damage from after the tree was cut and
the water was wicking in and that spot
was incredibly porous there's another
shot of it there that really light
yellow area is about as third as hard as
the rest of the slab so it was
really really really porous and i spent
all day pouring this in which is why i
use the deep pore epoxy because it
wouldn't start curing for many hours and
i could continue to baste it over the
course of a day and let it soak up as
much epoxy as it possibly could and in
the end i think i probably netted about
two gallons of epoxy that actually
soaked inside i used about three gallons
or so but i think there's a good two
gallons inside and it was actually
noticeably heavier than the other slab
i took both slabs into creative
woodworking to get surfaced after the
epoxy cured and i know the one without
epoxy looks like the boring one right
now but i promise you that one is going
to be 10 times the statement piece as
the one we're working on in this video
and that doesn't mean it's better or
you'll like it more because i think both
of them have their place but that other
one i'm almost done with and it is
shaping up to be an absolutely wild
piece and i don't want to get you
distracted we're still working on this
natural wood colored one here but just
want to give a little teaser that that
other one isn't as boring as it looks
right now
this is something that i've never
actually done before and i've never
actually seen it done before normally a
live edge slab table the live edge
section runs along the long sections
because that's the way the tree grows
and financially it doesn't make sense
for most people to cut a giant slab up
into kind of medium sized desks like i'm
doing here however i get a little bit of
flexibility because i have the youtube
channel i get to make a little bit of
money from youtube so i can take a
chance on a little bit wilder design
waste a little bit extra money on wood
and hopefully just make something really
cool and really unique and that's why i
had to put the c channels the long ways
because that's the way the wood likes to
warp and twist normally the c channels
are on the short section so just
something else i had to consider in this
build
i almost always prefer an edge profile
that's not just straight up and down
it's one of those little things you can
do to your pieces that make them look a
lot better and doesn't take a lot more
work and this is just a 22 degree
chamfer that is a look that i really
like i put it in a lot of my pieces
so much so that i actually had this
custom router bit made a couple months
ago and i've been using it a lot
normally it gives me a better finish
than the track saw which is why i
removed the bulk of it with the saw and
then came back here to just
nip the edge of it with this and what i
found with this very soft poplar slash
map of burl it actually caused a fair
bit of tear out so i probably should
have just used the tracks on lesson
learned on that but i do think that bit
is actually getting a little bit dull
too so i'll get it sharp and see how it
performs next time
normally i don't like filling the little
pits or gaps in my tables with anything
other than epoxy and probably ca glue i
find that this kind of rubbery hot glue
stuff doesn't leave the smoothest
texture i'm also going to use these
little wax sticks which are kind of like
the old carpenter tricks i think they
use them for filling like nail holes on
baseboards and things like that and
those are fine for that but generally
for a table they're really just kind of
like as hard as a crayon and if you're
going to use a table every day you don't
want little pits filled with a crayon
however i am doing a film type finish on
this i'm going to be using using
something like a poly or a varnish and
that's going to seal all these over and
give a very very hard finish so that is
the one exception to when i will use
these kind of i don't know second tier
fillers and the reason i'm not using
epoxy or ca glue is they just won't fill
these brill pits i have tried everything
and they just tend to just go in and
then just chip out when you go to sand
them or scrape and smooth so these are
really the only way to fill those really
really finicky micro pits
the edges of a burl table are maybe the
coolest part but they're also a pretty
hazardous part and if you have
undersized children or oversized dogs
they might sit eye level with these
spikes so in order to make this table a
little bit more functional and less
hazardous i like to go through and try
to maintain the natural look of this
burl as best as i can but just remove
the hazards that might take out an eye
or at the very least pull a string on
the sweater and to do that i use a few a
few different tools this is just my
dremel tool with a little bit of
sandpaper on it and i have a couple of
fine little rafts and just some 400 grit
sandpaper and as much as i like the way
that spike looks it is really something
that my liability insurance just can't
handle so take it down try to keep it
natural looking and just remove the
hazard the best i can
as i tend to do in most of these videos
i am really understating just how much
sanding goes into these pieces but i
thought you guys might be interested in
this diy sanding glove that i made a
couple of years ago it's a pretty simple
process and if you hunt through some of
my old videos you'll see how to make it
yourself and now i'm ready to start the
finishing process though and this is
something that i got from my friend
chris over at four eyes furniture some
of you probably follow him as well and
this is a water-based poly and the cool
thing about water-based finishes is they
really are minimal yellowing an
oil-based or even an epoxy tends to give
much more of an amber yellow hue and
this will be very natural color and
eventually i need to get a spray gun but
for now i'm going to have to learn how
to brush this on
one of the many critiques that i get on
my table that i actually happen to agree
with at least in part is that i use
steel table legs too much and
generally this is because my clients
will ask me for steel table legs and i'm
not going to tell them no especially
when steel table legs are really really
easy to put on you basically just bolt
them on with a couple extra steps in
there but
one of the things that i think can
really set your pieces apart is having a
really cool custom wood leg and in the
past i felt the barrier to entry to
using really cool custom wood legs was
just too much it was too intimidating
for me to really get into because i
thought you need a cnc or something like
that so
what i wanted to do is figure a way out
to make really cool curved custom legs
that could be bolted on and off for
shipping and just moving around
and something that anybody in a shop i
should say probably a decently
proficient wood shop can do so
what i'm using here this is wenge this
is a really cool african hardwood and if
you don't have a jointer and you don't
have a planer and you still want to use
this jig that i'm going to show you here
in a second do yourself a favor and
order the s2s stuff from your local
lumber yard that is the stuff that
already comes just like that there but
this jig that i'm going to use this is
something that i actually just made this
is an acrylic jig and it's based on a
design from flowy line design he makes
steel table legs that i've used for
years and what it is is you basically
make your table legs in three pieces and
then we'll glue them together and this
enables you to use any wood that you
want it's something that i think is
gonna be an absolute game changer for me
and there should be for sale by the time
this video is live something that i am
incredibly excited about and actually
have another design in addition to this
kind of classic wine glass shape
when it comes to making really cool
custom curved solid wood table legs this
jig makes it incredibly easy however
this is not a beginning woodworking
project and something i'm always really
conscious of here being on youtube is i
know i have a pretty good reach and i
know a lot of people are beginning
woodworkers and this is not a beginning
woodworking project and i don't want to
get a bad reputation on pushing products
and projects on people that just aren't
ready for it because one could be
dangerous and two i just don't want to
take the money of people that aren't
actually going to use this so you do
need things like a really good flush
trim bit you do need things like a
router table and you need to know how to
use them because this is one of those
things that you could really really hurt
yourself if you used it incorrectly and
one of the things i will suggest is cut
closer to your line than i did there
this was a lot more router work than i
was hoping for so
do a little bit better job on your
bandsaw or jigsaw when it comes to
cutting that rough shape out and here's
what i'm doing is since i didn't have a
bit big enough to cut all the way across
this two inch leg i used one bit to make
a initial pass and then i used this
other bit with the top bearing to come
back and flush up the rest of it
one of the things that i am really
excited about using these table leg jigs
is now i get to experiment with a bunch
of different wood species and i
mentioned this wood species is called
wenge and wenge is one of those woods
that unless you're a fan of the genre
you probably don't actually know what it
is but you've probably seen it before
it's kind of like if you're into classic
rock if led zeppelin is walnut
bob seeger would be wenge it's really
nice when you see it you'd like it but
unless you're a fan of the genre you
probably can't put your finger on
exactly what it is and i personally love
bob seger and i personally love wenge
also led zeppelin's pretty good notice i
specifically left out the beatles
because i think we should all accept
that the beatles were just an average
band and that might give me some hate
but someone has to be the first person
to say it the beatles just weren't very
good
when i originally came up with this idea
for this table leg jig i had a really
clever idea on how to attach these
pieces together kind of like a puzzle
but
what i found in all of my testing is
different flush trim bits had different
tolerances so whereas the jig would fit
perfect with one bit it wouldn't fit
perfect with another bit and
yes i guess i could have also offered my
own flush trim bit for sale but if i
bought this jig i would be furious if i
also had to buy another expensive bit if
i already owned one so instead of doing
that really cool puzzle piece connection
what i decided to do is just make a
little bit more universal style that'll
work for everybody
i knew i was going to need a pretty good
build if i was going to be able to
polish this water-based poly to a really
nice granite like finish so while those
table legs were curing i added another
coat with a brush which i decided i
really didn't like the brush and on my
next coat i think i found a better
solution
i mentioned earlier that this wenge was
like the bob seeger of wood species and
that i only mean in reference to how it
looks because when it comes to working
with it it is like the
justin bieber of wood species it is a
finicky splintering pain to work with i
at the time said that i never wanted to
work with it again because i had things
like this chip out and just blow out
here
there was a lot not to like about
working with wenge but in the end it
looks like bob seeger sounds and i know
i'll get suckered in and i'll work with
it again but i genuinely did not enjoy
the process of working with it and
here's how i fixed that one little
blowout it was just some really unique
grain orientation there was nothing i
could really do
blew that tip out and i had to kind of
come back and carve it out the best i
could and you could see even when you're
carving it with really sharp chisels it
didn't want to leave a straight line and
in the end i was actually really pleased
with how this patch worked but it wasn't
super easy
eventually i'd like to replace this
rigid sander with a nicer stationary
oscillating sander but i will say and
this isn't sponsored it's actually a
really really good sander for the money
for a couple hundred bucks i don't think
there's anything else on the market that
really comes close to that so if you
have a small shop and or are on a budget
check out that rigid oscillating sander
well we are about 15 minutes into this
video and i have had relationships that
did not last this long in the past and
i'm just gonna put myself out there like
i did when i first met my wife and i'm
gonna say it i think we should make this
official and no i'm not saying that we
should be exclusive i'm planning on
having other subscriptions i think you
should have other subscriptions too it's
important that we both enjoy everything
the internet has to offer but if you are
enjoying your time with me i would love
it if we made it official and you hit
that subscribe button
i wanted a little bit more of a polished
look on this wendy because it's a very
hard wood and it takes a really nice
shine when you sand it up to the higher
grits so i started at 80 grit went to 80
120 150 180 240 320 finally finishing at
500 grit and wanted to thank one of my
viewers because he told me about this
pad for the festool sander that crazy
soft pad and it made it really nice on
these very contoured surfaces so thank
you to him for that and if you're
looking for this or anything else in the
video i generally am really good about
putting links to everything in the video
description
i'm currently working on offering a
steel or aluminum mounting bracket that
i can use to attach these legs to your
table base kind of similar to the ones i
use in my steel table legs but it's
going to be an additional cost and i
wanted to come up with a really
affordable and really sturdy way so this
is actually baltic birch this is half
inch thick plywood but it's a really
really high quality plywood and what i
did is i used number eight wood screws
and epoxy and i attached this table leg
to that baltic birch and it's just dyed
black if you're wondering it's just kind
of a simple water-based dye and this is
going to be a very sturdy base and
something that's going to be a really
cheap alternative to that steel bracket
if you're trying to do this on a budget
or you just like the look of that wood
versus having a steel or aluminum
mounting plate
the finished process that i'm doing here
on the legs is quite a bit different
than i'm doing on the top and this is by
design sometimes i like everything to
match really closely but since we have a
contrasting wood with this darker wenge
and the very light map a burl top i
thought it would be cool to have a
slightly different sheen going from
these legs to the top so all i did was
sand up to 500 and i say all i did
because that was a lot of work but
sanded up to 500 and just one coat of
the rubia monaco where sometimes i had
two or three coats with some light
sanding in between this was just the one
coat and from there i went ahead and i
recessed my mounting plates and this is
something i do think is necessary if
you're going to do this baltic birch
mounting plate because you don't want to
see the side of the plywood when you are
looking at the profile of your table
whereas if it was a really thin steel
plate it might be okay to see the side
of it but for this i definitely wanted
it recessed
normally i don't add any adhesive to my
threaded inserts in case i ever need to
remove them however the inside of this
slab despite being soaked in epoxy was
still pretty soft that epoxy didn't
really make it much past that outer
quarter inch or so so added a little bit
of adhesive just to give them a little
bit more bite
you can see here i still have a lot to
learn about brushing polyurethane that
was a pretty unacceptable job up to this
point i was expecting it to need some
work but i was hoping i could get it a
little bit better than that and i did
talk to a few friends of mine and try to
come up with a little bit better method
to get this on there and everybody said
i needed to spray but if i can't spray
this is something that they suggested
and that's the foam brush and while this
was far from perfect as well it was much
much better than the brush so if you are
like me and you can't spray you can't
take it somewhere to get sprayed try the
foam brush
after i was confident that i had enough
of that water-based poly built up that i
wasn't going to burn through it and
expose the bare wood when i started
sanding i want to work with the 600 grit
and you can see there what i'm trying to
remove trying to remove those lines
those lap marks and the 600 grit did a
really pretty good job i went from 600
to 800 to 1000 to 1500 finally at 2000
with this dry merka sandpaper here and
what i am doing is pretty unique to
myself and i don't want to say that i
invented it because everybody has always
done everything but nobody taught me
this this is something i first tested
out a little over a year ago on a table
and what i'm doing here is i sanded it
up to 2000 grit and i'm actually
applying rubio monocode and this is
because the epoxy tables that i do i
will apply the rubio right over the
epoxy and it really smooths it out kind
of eliminates any of the haze or sanding
marks and so when it's sanded all the
way up to 2000 it gives this absolutely
incredible granite-like appearance and
it's really really cool and i don't
think it's that weird because if you
think about it a lot of the guys that
sand up to 2000 grit or so they'll apply
like a paste wax and rubio is a hard wax
finish so it's a type of wax and the
sample piece that i did about a year ago
it's actually holding up really well and
this finish can be kind of spot repaired
or replaced repaired in place where most
varnish type finishes can't be
i meant to mention this earlier in the
video but as soon as this video is live
this piece will be up for auction with
the bidding starting at one dollar just
a straightforward ebay auction if it
sells for forty dollars i'll still pay
for shipping across the lower 48 and if
you just want to click on it to see if i
lost a bunch of money because this map
of burl slab costs 3 000
i think it's kind of entertaining for
you guys and really all be fine either
way so if you want to own it there's a
link in the video description below or
if you just want to see how i did
also these table like jigs are for sale
the wine glass and the wishbone both for
sale now links to everything in the
video description and as always i like
to give people a little bit of credit
who make it all the way to the end of
the video so in honor of riggs making
his first cameo in quite a while start
your question or comment with the breed
of dog that you think he is because
nobody ever gets it right and if you
actually do i will be forever impressed