RIVER TABLES

What is a river table?

A river table is manufactured from wooden board usually with a 'live edge' (the edge where the bark of the tree would be). After ensuring the wooden board is flat the board(s) is then placed in a way to give a river in the middle of the board or table top. Usually outer edges are squared off to ensure an oblong top of the size required is machined. Once established a mould is manufactured and sealed to the size of the table top (sometimes a little larger for further machining). The two or more pieces of the board are then placed in the mould and clamped down to ensure the wood does not float in the resin. Resin is then mixed along with a colour pigment of your choice and carefully poured into the void where the river would be. The resin and wooden top is then observed for air pockets and bubbles and repaired as required. The resin is then left for 3-7 days (depending on temp) to cure, during the early stages the board must be kept level and dust free. Once cured the table top is once again machined on both sides removing excess resin and ensuring the table is flat. After trimming the edges where required the table top is then polished in increasing grits until the surface is scratch free up to 3000 grit is used. The table is then oiled or waxed and is ready to be assembled with the legs of your choice. The legs can be either wood or steel depending on your choice. Steel legs give a good contrast to the wooden top and river and are inexpensive, these can be either steel hairpin legs or steel 'box' section legs and are easily available from ebay or amazon.

Of course not all tables need a river you can use an interesting piece of wood with interesting features and make a mould to the shape of the table top require, resin can then be poured and machined as above.

Why so expensive?

The process of manufacture of a river table is very time consuming with the multiple operations required to complete a table. Also the cost of feature wood is becoming more expensive, one of the largest material expenses is the resin itself. Resin is very costly and extreem care has to be taken to ensure leakage of the resin does not take place. I have seen an occasion where on a very large table the resin was poured before the end of the work day only to find the next day that the resin had leaked out onto the floor resulting in nearly £900 of loss of resin, mind you the finished table was worth over £9000!