An old hand made country farm table was not just a dining table! It was a gathering place. It was the work place for all food preparation, sometimes even used as a butcher block. It was really a great piece of furniture and a thing of beauty. It was always the most functional and most used household item. If the farm table was made in this country; it was probably made from the heart of yellow pine cut from extremely old long leaf pine trees. This wood was commonly called heartpine.Yes, heartpine was one word. If so, it could still be strong and beautiful today. Strong, because heartpine was the hardest and most durable pine ever grown. Beautiful, because these tables were scrubbed daily and the dark burnt- red grain showed through to give an unbelievable two or more color effect. What gathering place compares with these old tables? Maybe you have never seen a table that shows centuries of both abuse and love and is still standing and ready fo more. They are very rare. Take heart! Check the web! You may not find an old one that suits your needs but hand made reproductions are plentiful. These tables come in all shapes and sizes and from a variety of different woods. Some are excellant quality with mortised and tendon joints that are double pegged for strength and durability. You will also find farm tables made from walnut cherry and oak. These are all excellant hardwoods so expect to pay much more.Walnut does not change a lot over time so they can be made to look old by distressing and the proper finishing. Cherry starts turning darker right away. It ages itself and continues to look good as long as the finish is cared for. Finished oak seems to never age unless it has been varnished. Varnish turns black with time and definitly looks old. This is a problem for some but others love it. I have no objections to any of the any of these woods and we would be happy to build farm tables with them. So, if you have an interest in farm tables, I suggest you get on the web and check them all out. They range in price from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. Most are hand crafted with a primative look and an attempt at a natural patina. This is good. You will want to check the strength and sturdiness of any table by the manner in which it is put together. The legs should be fastened to the apron by mortise and tendon joints. These joints should each have two pegs to hold them together. Any table 72" or longer should have an extra board under under the center of the top for extra strength and sturdiness for the entire table. Now we come to appearance. We have all the afore mentioned attributes in our tables but here's where we have no competition. No one else can bring out the two or more colors in the grain of antique heartpine without waiting for decades for nature to do the job. We give you this natural look in weeks, not years. In our 38 years of finishing furniture , we have found for antique restoration or reproduction, you can never beat the natural appearance developed by Mother Nature and Father Time. We can change the appearance in many ways but we will always have dark reddish hard grain and a different and lighter color soft grain. Here we are a few centuries later still wanting to duplicate the simple natural appearance of long ago. Well. all that wishing and wanting is now over. After working on this problem for several years, we can now duplicate Mother Nature's artistry in forming this gorgeous patina in days instead of decades. She accomplished this very slowly over the years. We just rush it up a bit (actually a hellofalot)! If you have an interest in a hand crafted heart pine farm table that looks just like the old ones get in touch and we will go from there.