Walnut Coffee Table 🪑

woodworking · ~6 weeks · 2026

The piece

Placeholder description: a live-edge walnut slab mounted on hand-bent steel hairpin legs. Dimensions roughly 48" × 22" × 16" tall. Finished with three coats of pure tung oil cut with citrus solvent.

Materials & tools

• 1× live-edge walnut slab, ~2" thick
• 4× 16" steel hairpin legs (welded in shop)
• Tung oil, 320/600/1000 grit sandpaper
• Router with flush-trim bit (for stabilizing checks)

The process

1. Sourced the slab from a local mill — picked it because of the curl figure on one end.
2. Filled two natural cracks with tinted epoxy.
3. Flattened with a router sled, then sanded through 1000.
4. Welded the hairpin legs from 3/8" rod.
5. Three coats of tung oil, 48 hours between coats.

What I'd do differently

Placeholder lesson — e.g. "I'd flatten the slab on a CNC instead of a router sled next time. Took ~8 hours and the surface was still uneven enough to need heavy sanding."