How to make a giant table from a 5000-year old oak tree

Originally published at: How to make a giant table from a 5000-year old oak tree | Boing Boing

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I hope really brings the room together.

…'cause ain’t much else gonna fit in there…

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Step one: Plant a variety of long-lived tree species, and provide an endowment for a forester to tend them forever, for whenever they’re needed for various projects

Step two: Join the Long Now Foundation to increase the odds there will still be civilization in 5,000 years

Step three: Achieve immortality

Step four: Make table

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I wonder who the first yob will be to scratch their initials into this thing?

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Table accidentally ruined when Aunt Mabel sets down her piping-hot special tuna casserole without a coaster.

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King Arthur, “Yes, that’s very nice; though I was expecting something a little more… um… circular.”

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It feels wrong somehow that a private person or corporation probably owns this. Clearly it’s destined for some corporate boardroom. It would be absolutely useless for much of anything else except a giant feasting table in a king’s hall. Actually, putting it in an historic castle like that would actually make me feel much better about the whole thing.

Edit: Should have clicked the link first. It is being used as a historical thing for the nation.

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Yah I went looking to answer “why?” and the answer was “Art Project” which (as a pragmatist) always mildly disappoints me. Better than a boardroom, but still makes me go “meh”

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It should be made into electric guitars. Brian May’s first homemade guitar was made from an ancient oak mantle that was in his father’s house. No one could think it was a waste of good wood. I have a Fender Telecaster that the neck and body were made from a historic mahogany tree that came down in a storm in the late 80’s.

It should be noted that IMHO great wood should always be made into electric guitars. It’s just a fetish of mine. What can I say.

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Unfortunately, they completed this video before starting work on the prequel:
“Why to make a giant table from a 5000-year old oak tree”

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Have seen a couple of wool sorting benches lowered into dining tables and the history of the wood is marked by the shearers names and the shine of the lanolin on the wood… so mark away and leave some humanity in the wood is what I reckon

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“When you have more than you need, build a longer table, not a higher fence.”
-unknown author -

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That’s why King Arthur assigned the furniture procurement duties to Sir Cumference.

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Wrong sort of tree, but vibe =

For the people who don’t get why such a big table … I buy into the designers’ idea that it was imagined in order to give you a sense of the hugeness of the old forests, back when there were gigantic trees.
I’m trained as a carpenter, and let me tell you that ‘the end of wood’ is a serious issue I think about all the time and we have to make allowances: softer wood, smaller pieces, more joining, combining with other materials, composites, etc etc…
A functional item, not just a huge decoration on a wall, but a relatable piece of furniture, with it’s connotation of shared living, and that gigantic, could help people imagine what we’ve lost and what remains.
I was fascinated and actually ooing and awwing and eeking out loud while looking at the photos of the project. I am absolutely aghast imagining the nerves and ultimate elation when they first milled that tree to find that it was good all throughout! And how to adapt and built machinery to work that much length! The novel joints! A wonderful thing, I say.

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