Tell me about wood species for custom dining table.

[rohara66]

Looking at getting a custom dining table made from a local company and they are offering to make it out of spruce (with some risks of cupping and splitting) or a hardwood like maple (less risk but double the cost).

I know nothing about wood species when it comes to furniture. Thought or recommendations?

[GGG]

if you are having or have children test out the hardness of the wood with cutlery and see what happens if a fork is jammed into the softer wood or just dropped from a foot up. Try writing on paper using a pen to see if that marks the table.

I'd use as hard of wood as possible to prevent dents and bumps from regular use.

[Kjesse]

Paging surferguy....

[OMG!WTF!]

I think the spruce one might look like a picnic table. Spruce is kind of rough, good for dimensional lumber in construction. I think a good manufacturer could get well seasoned and stable spruce together for a solid table that's well finished and would last. But it is soft and over all I don't think you'd like the look. If the manufacturer isn't really careful and experienced with building spruce tables it could totally split apart. Depends on the humidity in your house too. Anyway, lots of pro's here that will give you some much better advice.

[sun]

Spruce will look good if you have a rustic kinda thing going on. Embrace the patina. Maple otherwise. Depends on the design of the space and table.

I can recommend a guy who does killer trestle tables if you don't vibe with yours.

[opendoor]

I don't think I'd ever pay to have a custom table made of something like spruce, particularly if there wasn't some guarantee against warping or splitting.

And if going from spruce to maple doubles the overall price, that likely means the spruce is low grade or even framing lumber. I could see it maybe doubling the material cost if you're comparing furniture grade spruce to good maple, but not the overall cost because the labor and other costs should remain roughly the same regardless of species (assuming the design remains the same).

[zamler]

You can't use a softwood for a table unless you don't mind thousands of marks in short order. Maple is an excellent wood.

[surferguy]

Do not even consider spruce. You are better than that

[CaptainCrunch]

Any species that's not grown in BC.

[Knalus]

We used to have a pine coffee table. There were only two times that it looked good.

The first 2 days, then 6 years later when the dings and the scratches and the dents had worn down enough to look antique-ish.

I would avoid Pine like the plague, and I would question the kind of craftsman who would even offer it. Perhaps for a seldom used item, or a smaller table, or a cheaper-than-ikea solution, but a dining table???

[Knalus]

Wait - that said Spruce. So, not even like knotty pine, which might have some aesthetic redeeming qualities, but spruce???? Even among cheap woods, that's really bad.

[Canehdianman]

Anyone who recommended spruce to me for a dining table would get ignored, unless I was putting it in a crew bunkhouse in the middle of nowhere and it had to be made with local timber.

I know the guy behind garawood.com. One day I hope to be able to get him to build me a custom farmhouse table out of walnut or something equally majestic.

His instagram has quickly become one of my favourites. I recommend it if you like watching some exquisite craftsmanship. https://www.instagram.com/garawood/

[troutman]

I am Groot.

[surferguy]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

Anyone who recommended spruce to me for a dining table would get ignored, unless I was putting it in a crew bunkhouse in the middle of nowhere and it had to be made with local timber.

I know the guy behind garawood.com. One day I hope to be able to get him to build me a custom farmhouse table out of walnut or something equally majestic.

His instagram has quickly become one of my favourites. I recommend it if you like watching some exquisite craftsmanship. https://www.instagram.com/garawood/

Dallas does incredible work, the maloof inspired chair he posted about an hour ago is simply stunning.


OP - spruce might be the worst option available other than maybe balsa wood.

Of all of the soft species (cedar, pine, fir, hemlock) spruce is just a cheap crappy wood for a dinning table. You would regret the decision.

If you are interested in a flawed table, I have a finished table top ready to go in my shop. It's reclaimed fir, stained gray. It bowed on me but I'm confident that I can pull the bow out with the right set of table legs. This would be an economical table. PM if you want more info.

As far as spruce vs maple. Maple is a far superior species and would last much much longer.

Feel free to PM me if you want to chat about this subject directly. Consider me a resource.

[CroFlames]

You can build something decent with pine if you want a rustic look.

Personally, I'd love to be confident enough in my skills to build a table top from walnut. Gawd I love how it looks when it's finished.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Walnut all day.

[rbochan]

Cocobolo.
Of course.




BCS.

[OMG!WTF!]

If you got 20 racks a table, then ebony. Of course.

[Kjesse]

surferguy made my family a very cool dice box for playing dice games, I'll photos of his work in the artisan thread this weekend. The quality of his work is outstanding.

[rohara66]

Woah, thanks everyone for the information!

To be fair to the company we approached made it very clear that the spruce table was entry level and suitable for cost savings and that it would be soft and would get dinged up. And that if at all possible within our budget to consider the maple 'upgrade' as it is far superior.

So they were totally up front about it. Just wanted to get a second opinion.

surferguy I will PM you!