Creating My Table With Reclaimed Flooring

I officially entered the Bold Doors competition. This competition is all about artistic expression using reclaimed materials. The requirement is that the entry must incorporate a reclaimed door. Some of the examples on their site show doors decorated in various ways, but since the entries will be displayed at local business, their guidance is to think small. My thought is to build a hallway table using reclaimed oak floors for the legs and a door for the top. My goal is for it to be 99% reclaimed wood.

Here are my materials, about 12 square feet of oak flooring and a cupboard door made from ¾" plywood. I carefully remove the nails and staples from the flooring pieces and rip the pieces thick enough to allow two ¼" diameter beads to be cut along the edge. Three boards glued together will provide space for six beads and any seam from gluing the pieces will be hidden between rows of beads.

I plan to use my Mission Style stain technique which will highlight interesting grain patterns in the oak. The plain sawn flooring has long grain patterns that aren't attractive - at least to me. Looking at the side of the wood flooring, the end grain pattern has short flake and ray patterns that are the hallmark of Arts & Crafts furniture. I've glued a piece of quarter-sawn piece veneer to what was the surface of the floor in order to cover the boring long grain.

Here I show a table leg with beads cut on a router table. I start applying the stain finish before construction because its easier to sand. The first step is to use a Mahogany Gel Stain. I wipe the stain off across the grain in order to leave the pigment in the grain. After 24 hours, I use a 150 grit sandpaper and sand off most of the color leaving the pigment in the grain. It will look much better after spraying with a dye stain. Next step, cutting mortise and tenon joints for constructing the table.

Creating Fine Furniture with Reclaimed Materials

I'm planning on entering a juried competition which requires using a reclaimed door to create a piece of art. Doors are apparently frequently discarded and many of them end in landfills. I'm considering constructing a hallway table using a portion of a solid-core front door for the table top and milling reclaimed oak flooring into trim apron rails and legs. My goal is to use 99% reclaimed materials (by weight) for this entry and I will be documenting my progress on this blog. Entrees aren't due until June so I think I have enough time.

Here is photo of reclaimed flooring that is left outside to the elements. Bundles are less than 10 square feet and priced at $1 per square foot. Apprehensively, I purchased a bundle of solid oak flooring and took it home.

Since I like to use veneer, beaded features, and mission style finish, I milled and finished a sample piece from the flooring I purchased. Shown on the far right, even after the beads were cut, the long grain patterns of the oak show due to its flat-grain. Preferring the shorter ray patterns from quarter-sawn wood, I've stacked and glued three pieces of flooring together (near right). This exposes the end grain, which is essentially what quarter-sawn wood shows. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the left piece is better.

Having figured out how to use the reclaimed flooring for the apron rails, the legs are next.