Walnut table top for a cellar
Hi everyone,
I wanted to share a tabletop project I recently finished for my neighbor.
It’s made from a massive walnut burl/root slab, around 130 × 110 cm. The piece is basically end grain because of the way the root was cut, so it has a really wild and chaotic figure in person.
Also, funny coincidence, the owner’s last name translates to “owl”, and the dark figure in the center somehow ended up looking like one too if you squint a little...
The slab was professionally vacuum dried, and instead of using epoxy for the cracks and voids, I decided to fill them with a more flexible black wood filler/sealant (Blackwood type material). The table will live in a wine cellar, where temperature and humidity changes are pretty significant throughout the year, so I wanted something with a bit more movement tolerance than a big rigid epoxy fill.
Underneath I added a stabilizing plate with threaded inserts to help keep everything flat and under control over time without locking the slab completely rigid.
The base will be an old whiskey barrel, which I think will fit the whole rustic cellar vibe perfectly.
It’s definitely not a super refined “showroom” piece though. The root had been buried for a long time and was originally cleaned up pretty roughly with an axe while digging it out, so the outer edges are still quite raw and rustic looking in places. But honestly, I think that adds a bit of character to it.
Really curious what you guys think, especially from people who worked with large burl/root slabs before.
Best regards.
