Burl Oak Coffee Table – Barley Medium Finish, Solid Wood

Burl oak in a Barley Medium finish. Burl is a growth deformity in a tree, where grain grows in swirls and knots instead of running straight, and cutting through it yields a figure no straight-grained board can produce. On a coffee table that figure is the whole point, since the top is the surface a room looks down onto.

Burl is difficult material to work, because the grain runs in every direction at once, which makes it prone to tearing under a blade and unpredictable in how it accepts a finish. Barley Medium is a mid-tone, and a mid-tone shows burl figure better than either extreme does: pale washes the pattern out and dark buries it. Nothing about the figure repeats, so each top belongs to the piece of wood it was cut from.

A burl top is a decorative object as much as a surface, which argues for keeping it relatively clear rather than covering it with books and trays.

• Material: Burl oak
• Finish: Barley Medium