A morning digression

A digression concerning the jointing of the table top in the kitchen of our holiday cottage. A table top which is around 4 feet long by 2 feet 6 inches wide and perhaps half an inch thick. It appears to be made of strips of a pale wood, rather like the obeche I used to know when young, cunningly jointed together.

The present point of interest being the zig-zag cut used to butt two strips together, end to end, one of these joints being visible near the middle of the snap above.

I don't think I could ever cut such a zig-zag neatly and consistently enough to make a viable joint. Furthermore, one might have thought that the wood would not take such cutting without crumbling. 

But maybe with the sort of power tools available in a factory one could do such a thing. And it is certainly true that even quite a ragged joint can look quite smart when it has been planed smooth and varnished.

PS: I did not seem to be able to position myself relative to the overhead lights so that the joint was reasonably clear and the shadows were absent. I settled for reasonably clear.

References

Reference 1: https://www.wood-database.com/obeche/.

Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2012/10/jigsaw-23.html. First previous mention.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/sea-and-sand.html. Second previous mention. I have been here before! Must check up on how the lumps are doing on the beach at Yaverland.