Synopsis: To build the slender base for his tilt-top table, Greg Brown started with 8/4 boards and did the shaping and carving in stages. He cut the joinery while the parts were still square, then shaped the flowing legs and carved an ivy vine that climbs the table’s branchlike base. See how he did it.

To build the slender-legged organic base of his tilt-top table (see the back cover), Greg Brown started with some hefty planks. The front legs were sawn from 8/4 boards, and the back leg and the two arching stretchers required 10/4 stock. Brown did the shaping and carving in stages-nearly all of it before final assembly. For the tilting mechanism, he adapted a period technique, in which round tenons pivot in round mortises cut into the battens attached to the underside of the tabletop.

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