Hi everyone, I've been slowly working on the dining table project. Really need some help with identifying the type of wood to use for the legs, as well as some advice on dimensions of the lumber. I've been learning joint techniques on examples, reading books on joinery, Shakers furniture, etc. Still consider myself a beginner at this, there is so much to learn.
To give you an idea of the project, some pictures of the slab below. 8.8 ft long, 3ft wide on average.
The question I'm stuck at the moment is the sizing for the lumber to use for table legs. This is where I got the inspiration, but I'm not sure what dimension of lumber to use. From what I gather, the two runners and crossbeams are 4x4, and the legs been cut from a 4x6 to accommodate for the splay without loosing thickness. Could someone with an eye for this please tell me approximately lumber dimension to start with?
Another question, is what kind of lumber is suitable for this design above? Would Douglass fir work for these joints? Seems to me soft wood would be okay, since Japan has predominately softwoods as I have read. And this design above is definitely Japanese joinery inspired. If someone could share an article or share some knowledge on choosing woods for table base and legs, that would help a lot, thank you guys.