I had a nice piece of mahogany, real Santo Domingo mahogany that I'd been saving for 20 years for a good project. I figured it was time to make up my mind. There was almost enough for this stand, I had another board for the legs.
I started with the top, four pieces joined together. I used a table saw jig, and then a chisel to cut the joints.
I trimmed the joints to fit, and shortened ends a little, and rounded them.
I cut slots on the inside, and cut a piece of plywood that would hold the square of marble.
I stretched that board by splitting it in half, so the side panels are only half an inch thick. Not that you can tell without turning the table over. First, I used the router table to cut the cloud-lift detail.
After sanding each piece, I had to add the carving detail. First, I carved out the step shape, then ruined the crisp edge by sanding. This is how they look on the original piece!
The lower rails were also made using the router table, and are also half an inch thick, probably thicker than those on the original piece, (which look quite thin, maybe too thin).
I cut the legs and the mortises.
I stained the project before assembling it, that way I could stain the legs a little bit more than the rest of the project, and try to get them to end up the same color.
I glued the top together, and then the legs and stretchers. I placed the leg assembly on the underside of the top, and traced it, then cut a shallow slot which will prevent any gaps once it's put together.
Then it was time to install all of the ebony pegs. Forty four of them.
I needed a piece of marble for the top, so I visited a marble and granite cutting shop and asked if they had a scrap for me. I took a picture of the table so they would understand what I was talking about. Sure enough, they found nice scrap piece, and didn't charge too much for cutting an eight-inch square. Their bread and butter is big counter tops and kitchen islands, so they seemed kind of amused at my tiny square.
I finished with a wipe-on polyurethane.
