One of the things I've made (am making still... ) from the oak that I rived is a coffee table. I applied what I learned reading Make a Joint Stool From a Tree from my favorite woodworking publisher, Lost Art Press.
The hardest part was getting the right dimension from the wood. It was my 1st time riving, I made slabs instead of splitting in half every time. If I had the length, the thickness might not be enough and so on.
I was trying to be frugal with the wood and made my initial milling too small.
I persevered and produced the legs, aprons and stiles. The legs needed 16 mortices. I chopped them all by hand with mortise chisel and mallet. I didn't drill them out at all.
The wood is still green, making things a bit easier.
Here is an end with the undrilled tenons inserted into the mortises.
I'm marking the mortise holes onto the tenons.
The tenon holes are drilled 1/16" closer to the shoulder than the mark. This is what drawboring is about.
When the peg is driven through the mortise, tenon and out the other side of the mortise, the offset will pull the shoulder tight against the leg.
You shouldn't need glue, the peg will hold it.
The pegs need to be tapered. While the legs and stretchers are green, the pegs should be dry.
They will absorb moisture from the green wood and swell.
The peg actually bends as it goes through the joint.
This will hold, without glue, until you cut the joint apart.
Here is an action shot of the peg before I cut the ends off.
And this is the assembled base.
2 years later and it's still tight and not splitting or pulling apart. You don't have to use completely dried wood.
