Cigar Band Coffee Table (Complete Project Recap)

[Mark THS]

With a lot of the cleanup work complete, I spent a lot of time sanding and focusing on the detail elements. A gradual rise in sandpaper grit and a sharp pocketknife gave me some superb results.

I wanted to keep the look classic, so I chose a simple wood stain and proceeded with a typical finish


Another look at the finish process


Once again, these pesky legs added quite a tedious element to the finish. The coloring in the legs varies a lot more in this stage than in others of the finish


The end result was a pretty serviceable refurb, but I still wanted to add a cigar twist to this project-


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[Mark THS]

To any furniture purists- this is where I apologize. This is not a period refurbishment, but a custom band project, so what you might see next is in the eye of the beholder.

I originally saw the use of epoxy for bar tops in college. I'd seen a few guys lay down bottlecaps and pour a layer of two-part epoxy over the top, creating a glasslike finish. That is where the inspiration came from.

Now, I love the look of new cigar bands, and I've used them for many other projects, but what I really wanted for this project was to create the most timeline piece possible. I tracked down a guy in the Detroit area that had a substantial lot of UNUSED antique cigarbands. They were banded with twine, just like that would look like if they showed up in the factory ready for banding. I also found a few clean boxtop inserts, the type very typical with old cigar boxes. I love the look of old cigar bands- lots of reds and golds, which gave this a very uniform look.

I started by laying down a base.


That base was followup with a sparse layer of bands and a layer of epoxy.


I layed down a few more bands and box top inserts above that layer. The general idea between many layers of epoxy is to create depth. The end result will be many layers of 'floating' bands



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[Mark THS]

I'll spare you some of the boring details, but the bands/epoxy layering went on for quite some time..




A nice closeup

[Mark THS]

The end result was a nice smattering of layers and bands, creating a collage of bands and a great mix of colors


After a little cleanup and assembly- here is the end result



And a final shot of it in its final resting place after being gifted to my brother and his cigar room