The aim was to make something to mark my folk's 50th Wedding Anniversary in August 2005. A pair of somethings seemed appropriate, and after considerable consultation this was what was decided on. Cherry was chosen as having the warmth to go with the existing woodwork in the living room.

I'd like to claim I drew this up before I even put saw to wood, but I didn't. Forgive the clipped drawing; the free CAD software I used had expired and the only way to get the drawing was to take a screen shot and edit it. Measurements in millimeters.
6m of 6x1 rough sawn and 4m of 6x2. Plus some beech and walnut for other things. All from British Hardwoods, who are by and large pretty good considering I have to buy sight unseen.
Cutting the 2" thick cherry for the legs to more managable lengths, before planing it square, resawing to a little over finished thickness on the bandsaw and then stickering it for a while to do whatever evil it needs to do.
The 6m of 1" boards laid out to best decide where to cut them to make handling them through the planer thicknesser that bit easier.
Scrubbing down some high spots. One board had pretty severe cupping, and big dollops of paint on it, so to save wear and tear on the planer knives, I scrubbed down the worst.
Boards all planed and lined up together as they were before. Slightly disappointed in them really. The 2" stuff is much better; there's a good deal of sap wood in these which'll need care to avoid in the showing spots of the tables. Just have to hope it colours up in time.
Frankly they're all pretty awful boards, but I swapped 'em about until I was dizzy trying to get the best of a bad job.
Jointing the edges a la David Charlesworth, although I was doing the same before I'd even heard of him to be honest. The trusty #5.5 is often my weapon of choice for this task, using a cambered blade. I like to get things reasonably straight first, although sometimes I can really get in the flow and shoot for straight and square all at once and it works!
Holding the board. Bench slaves and board jacks? Not me, I just wash my hair and go... er, that is I clamp an offcut in the tail vice and use that to support the other end of the board. Dead easy, cheap as chips and works really, really well.
Of the four edges, three went like a dream, but for some reason the third of the four gave me a heap of trouble to get square. I was chasing my tail for a good ten minutes, and wondering about the jointer fence, before it suddenly clicked again and all was well.

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