Shades of Jarrah
PROJECTT
his hall table was made for Chatoyance, Studio
Woodworkers Australia’s exhibition that was themed
on the way that the grain patterns in wood can change
from different viewpoints. My choice of wood for this
was jarrah.
The wood
Two kinds of West Australian jarrah are used in this piece.
The legs, top and lower rails are made from commercially
available wood that in this case was dark and heavy with
lighter coloured streaks.
The fiddleback rails and inlay pieces came from a
paddock tree grown on private property. I purchased two
large flitches of this and resawed them on the bandsaw,
quartersawing to my own specifications.
Jarrah is structurally very strong and also has a powerful
presence, so my design was for a lighter construction and
limited the use of the fiddleback sections. Plainer and
darker jarrah was used to frame the striking fiddleback
grain of the rails and detail sections. I am saying less is
more, however don’t forget the late and great Wendell
Castle who said ‘more is more’.The angle
The legs are finished at 42mm square, a standard
industry dimension. They are splayed at 5° at the front
and back. The angle is important of course, as this is a
key design point. I have tried using 3° for legs in other
designs but it gives a more staid appearance. As a matter
of interest, in my observation, the legs on traditional
Chinese tables have a 3° rake, whilst Japanese tables
seem to employ a 5° angle.The front, back and lower rails needed therefore to be also
sawn at 5°. Note however that the upper and lower side
rails are sawn at 90°.Raf Nathan makes a hall table that explores the figure and tone of jarrah.