dave_in_gva wrote:
Hi,

I am building a low coffee table out of a lovely piece of burled Swiss
pear.

The top will be around 2.5 cm (1") thick and supported by 4 legs with
a gentle curve and an oval cross section. The look I'm after is
something elegant and feminine (the table is for a single mother
friend of ours). I do almost all my work with hand tools and have a
few spokeshaves but have not had reason to use them really till now.

To give a better idea on dimensions the overall height of the legs
will be somewhere around 35 cm (14"), with a curve deflection of
around 5 cm (2") at the apex point of deflection which will be at
about 8 cm (3") off the floor. Maximum dimension of the cross section
should be around 4 cm (1.5").

Any ideas on woods I should consider for the legs? I want to minimize
problems with tearout so don't want anything with interlocking
grain.....basically the ideal for me would be a good beginners wood
for getting into spokeshave work that also is stable and suited to
table construction. Visually I am not after anything to compete with
the table top as the focus will be on the burled figure of the pear.

Spokeshaver gurus....what say you?

Dave M.

I not sure what burled Swiss pear looks like or what color it is, so I don't know how well
it would mesh with my suggestion, but from a stability and workability standpoint, as well
as for sheer beauty, my favorite wood is mesquite. I *love* spokeshaves and use them every
chance I get, and even though mesquite is quite hard, it's a dream to use with hand tools.
Like I said, I don't know if it would be a good match in terms of color, but keep in mind
that it does darken over time (kinda like cherry) to a deep reddish brown. Check out the
pictures of the snare drum on my Flickr page (in my sig below) if you want to get an idea of
how mesquite changes color as it ages.

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