When Ronald Reagan decided to beef up the US Navy to 600 capital ships, he brought back to life 4 of our famous WWII battle wagons! On 22 October 1987, the USS WISCONSIN was officially recommissioned and placed into active service. I was a LT at NROTC, University of Wisconsin – Madison and I volunteered to act as the Navy’s liaison to the State’s historical society and helped to create static displays of ship’s memorabilia for display around the state. Before the year was out I received a call from the Oscar Meyer Co. in Madison asking me to, “come and get this crap out of the refrigerators!” I did so and found among “the crap” many decayed USS WISCONSIN teak wood planks that didn’t make it into the static displays. Damn the luck! That week I bought my first Delta contractor’s table saw and I trimmed away the decayed wood. What I found was a lot of pristine teak preserved beneath the rot!! These tables are pieced together with that preserved teak wood. The tops are 3/4” teak and white oak strips to give the appearance of a ship’s wooden deck. The legs and skirts are white oak. Finish is high gloss, hand brushed Minwax Polly. It took many years to finish these tables because I didn’t have access to the tools necessary to do the job correctly. So, the unfinished table tops traveled from duty station to duty station until I finally made it to shore duty in 1995. That’s when I finally put legs on the tops! It took several more years before I could sand and finish. I guess these table will always be a work in progress. The magazine table design was inspired by my wife. She found and purchased an old broken magazine table at a garage sale that she thought we needed to fill our empty newlywed apartment! When that table finally died, a piece of our hearts went with it. So, I made this magazine table in honor of the memories we cherish as newlyweds and our old broken garage sale table!