But I did not stand on any mountains, just acknowledged the fact that this particular hill gave me more than I hoped for – but not more than I suspected.

As stated in the article about my side table, the materials I had were rather abysmal. Cracks and splits galore! Still, I decided to give it a go. I regard the table as a prototype as I tried several things for the first time. If it turned out good, then I’d be nothing but happy – but if anything should go awry, there’s learning in it.

One of the planks I cut had a few hairline cracks. I thought the plank were stable after God knows how many years in storage. I know that milling a board will relieve stresses, and that is why I let all the parts rest on my work bench for a couple of weeks after the initial milling. I then glued up the table top and let it rest while I worked on the legs. That took me a couple of weeks as well – I am a father, family man, house owner and I work full time. Shop time is precious and at times rare, so projects do drag out in time. Which is fine by me, really.

Anywhoo.. I thought that I was in the clear on this one.

One other reason why this happened, besides crappy materials, might be the fact that the table is placed next to big windows and it is exposed to sun light. Perhaps it would’ve been smart to avoid that for some time, but hey – who knew? Now I do.

Besides, I bet this would’ve happened anyway.

Right smack down the middle of the cathedral on this particular piece of the top, there are several hairline cracks forming. Since this is oak, they are hard to spot. Let’s do a where’s waldo:

There are two cracks in this image. Can you spot them?

Here is a close up of two of the cracks:

Time will tell if they develop further, but I would not be surprised if that happens. Since this is a test piece and because I know that the materials were, shall we say, questionable, I’m not going to loose any sleep over it. If the top fails, it fails. It is easy enough to make a new one, and boy do I have materials for it!

I’ll raise up to the challenge if need be, but do not expect a overused ear-worm to accompany the story.

Side rant: For this article, I googled the lyrics to “You raise me up”. It is a beautiful song, but there is just ONE verse. Then the chorus is repeated four times. FOUR! Still better than some of the so called “lyrics” released by Beyonce and Rhianna. What happened? We have Queen, Pink Floyd, Clapton, Cash… Then we get Rhianna yapping “work work work” and some words I cannot find in the dictionary (I am Norwegian).

Which gives me an epiphany. Did I just think “the songs were better before”?????? I DID, DIDN’T I? I feel old!

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas

I find it comforting that Mr. Clapton commented on some of the singers today singing “all those notes”…

Anyway – it is a nice little table, and a new top would not be that hard to make should the cracks develop into a minor canyon. There’s always room on top of the kindling stack…

Not a mountain in the background exactly, but we do live on top of a rock hill. Granite, to be specific. The ice age formed the landscape, and the bed rock is full of cracks. Seems fitting that the furniture match.

Let us see how this goes over time. No need to light this particular ring of fire unless the top do become kindling. The smoke raising it up to more than it could be, perhaps…

Update June 1_st 2021: Good news – the cracks have not developed. I’ll see if anything happens over the summer and probably through fall. If everything looks fine, I’ll give the whole top a light sand with 220 grit and apply one more coat of the water based lacquer. But so far – so good!