Civil War Folding Table: Finished Is Finished

I know the blog has been neglected for several months, but I have not been idle in the shop.  I have a good excuse, I think.  Highland Woodworking is interested in my writing from an amateur's view.  My writing time has been spent on more in depth stuff for them; they may or may not accept the work for publication.  Either way there is more content for the blog, eventually.

Today we are going back to the Civil War folding table from Woodworker's Journal.  The last entry on the Civil War table is here.  The table build was unintentionally stretched out in the following blog posts:

     That'll Do, Pig. That'll Do
     Discretion Is The Better Part Of Valor
     A Peek Into The Sausage Factory

Here are before and after pictures of the finish:

 The finish is 3 applications of Danish Oil in Natural color.  The oil was left to cure for about 40 days.  After aging, I lightly sanded with 400 grit paper and a brown paper bag.  On top of the oil is bleached dewaxed shellac.  The top has four coats and the rest of the table has three coats of shellac.  The table was rubbed with a brown paper bag between coats, except for a very light hand with the 400 grit paper after the first coat of shellac.  The final touch is two coats of Johnson Paste Wax applied to the top.

Here are the rest of the pictures from final photo shoot.

I think I have enough material to make another similar table.  The decision as to folding legs is still up in the air.  If you peruse the previous blog posts, you'll find I have a set of legs that were 'ruined' by a silly design decision that I made; the goal is to use these expensive experiments elsewhere.

I encourage any woodworker to tackle this project.  It is actually quite an easy thing to build with both power and hand tools.  You might want to look for a lighter wood.  This table was built with White Oak and Padauk and consequently is very heavy.  The mass is good for me as I don't intend to sling this around like a big box store 20 dollar card table.