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Boomerang Buffet Table

Premier Architectural Products reached out to us with a design for a table that they had taken to a few different woodshops who were unwilling or not capable of taking on as a project,” says Josh Savoir Design Engineer for NEWwoodworks. “So, we said yes. We weren’t exactly sure how we were going to do it, but we worked through it and figured it out.”

The idea was for an approximately 9’ foot long and 3” thick community table with a central bend, shaped like a boomerang. With two extended wings, the table can comfortably seat a family of 10 people and will be a focal point of its new home in a Washington, D.C. restaurant. The table’s design features a large number of patterns and detail and incorporates the restaurant’s logo in a circle at its apex.

“Originally the architect wanted to do the table in one species with very specific colors,” says Savoir. “They wanted to stain separate colors to differentiate the patterns that were in the table. There were good discussions on our part and a lot of great ideas were contributed by Rob. (Rob D’Alessandro, who heads up our NEWwoodworks team) With the amount of detail in the piece, for us, it made the most sense that this should be an inlay project.”

As an alternative to using paints or stains our team specifically picked various species of wood that would fit the designer’s intent. “With a veneer, you put it down, cut out the shapes you need, and put the inlay in. So, we decided to do that with three types of wood that would match the colors they wanted for the table,” says Savoir. We ended up with walnut as the main veneer, wenge as the accent, and oak as the border.

“With inlays you are able to scrape and sand flush,” says Savoir. You have very fine lines between the grain directions and the different varieties of wood. So, the colors are very defined and if you were to use stain it would bleed. Stains soak into wood, so inlays are the best way to go.”

While the species picked were close to the desired colors of the table, NEWwoodworks needed one additional step to reach the perfect hue.

“We decided to use a darkening tone to get the species as close to the samples that the architect had sent us,” says Savoir. So, we decided to do the tone over all three species that way we weren’t separating the finishes after the fact. We came up with a sample that was walnut with oak and wenge laid into it, the tone was put over the top with the matte finish and we sent it over to the architect and they accepted it.”

In addition to the species sourced for the veneer, the substrate of the table was a high performing engineered lumber called Timberstrand that was used in conjunction with MDF outside layers. Together they provide an innovative and green building core for the project.

The assembly of the table was an important step in an involved process that included critical contributions from several members of the NEWwoodworks team.

“We did the table in two halves, I cut the two wings out on the CNC (computer numerical control router) and then Scott Auberger veneered it, and then I cut it again for the inlays, says Savoir. “I then cut the actual inlay pieces on the CNC. We did a bit of hand work to get them to fit perfectly. We put the walnut and oak in there, I cut pockets for the wenge and then we put the two halves together and I cut the bullnose edging. I did the arched shapes for that, and then we shaped them to the bullnose.”

“We glued the joint and dominoed it and two threaded rods were put in, says Savoir. Once it was all together, I carefully put it back on the CNC and cut the center,” says Savoir. “It was tricky to get everything to align and a lot of fine tuning, testing and calibrations, but we enjoy those types of challenges.”

Our NEWwoodworks team put over two weeks into the development of the boomerang table. A large amount of detailed inlay, high craft hand work, and focus was expended getting the piece just exactly perfect. Working with multiple species of wood isn’t for the faint of heart—but our team loves a good challenge.

“Wood can get damaged, it can check, and it can chip out, so we do our best to mitigate things before they happen, says Savoir. “All of the guys in the shop are experienced woodworkers and when issues arise, they are already prepared for it.”