Here are 2 planes I have made from purpleheart. They are both krenov-style construction.

The large one is almost as long as a Jack plane, and I use it with a heavily cambered iron for fast & rough removal, basically a scrub plane.

The little one is a smoother, 52 deg. pitch, using a block-plane blade. Once the bottom was tuned it take some thin shavings. The body shaping was done with my compound mitre saw, and then softened the corners enough so it doesn’t cut me. I have no intention of further refining the shape, as it works perfectly fine now, and is comfortable to hold. I will put some tung oil on it when I get around to it.

The last picture shows my complete arsenal of planes for comparison…a small but very useful set:
-Wooden Rabbet Plane
-Wooden “Ohio Tools” try Plane
-Stanley #5 Jack plne
-Wooden scrub plane
-Cheap stanley Block plane (Once tuned, ie sanded & filed, it works well)
-Small Wooden Smoother.

This is a cherry Jewelry Box I made for my wife. our 5th anniversary was in July (5th is supposed to be something wood), so I got her a large cherry board from a barn…7 months later, I finished this box, just in time for valentine’s day.

The box is all cherry except for the bottoms of the drawers, bottom of the box, and bottom of the top section, which are 1/4 oak plywood. The drawers and dividers are the exact same wood as the outside, which shows you the difference 3 coats of poly will give you (no stain).

Corners are mitered, including the drawers…That was the look my wife wanted. I didn’t reinforce the miters except for the 2 pieces of plywood that were glued into routed grooves in the assembly…I thought that would be enough.

The Drawers are hand-cut dovetails, then routed grooves, then glued-on drawer fronts. (the top knob is decorative only…there are only 2 drawers)

My wife plans to sew a little elastic pouch on the bottom inside of the lid to catch the bottoms of necklaces that hang from those hooks.

I made this Dice tower for my Wife’s Brother for Christmas. He’s a big gamer (D&D, Pathfinder).

-Sides and tray are from SPF 3/4×3.5 furring strips.
-Corners are SPF 2×2 boards planed down to smoothness and routed.
-ramps & tray bottom are 1/4 oak plywood covered with black felt.
-Dark walnut stain with 2 coats poly to give it that medieval look

It works great. He liked it a lot. I copied some design features from this one: http://boardgamegeek.com/image/359956/miscellaneous-game-accessory

Thanks for looking.

After a year and a half of sitting in my kitchen without doors, I finally finished this thing. The doors didn’t really take that long with the cope & stile router bits. I made the bottom 2 doors in about 2 hours, such that my wife wondered what I had been waiting for!

The middle section looks like 2 small doors, but actually folds down as a writing surface where we can keep track of our bills…It uses some some flush-hinges that are flush with the face of the cabinet when closed, but also flush with the bottom of the inside shelf when opened.

I made the center door first, and it turned out that the false center-line drifts about 1/4” to left from the top of the door to the bottom, such that the top 2 doors are the same size, but the bottom 2 doors: the right door is 1/4 inch wider than the left, I had to make them that way so the center-lines matched up. I told my wife that’s the kind of custom detail you can’t buy at the big box stores! :-)

Wood is Poplar face-frame and doors, Pine B/C Plywood for the carcass (back/sides & shelves). Early American stain (Minwax) and 2 coats Poly.

This is a standing Desk I made for my Pastor’s Doctor of Ministry Graduation. It is a surprise for the middle of May, but he is not a woodworker, and so I’m fairly confident he will not see this in the next few weeks. He has been talking about wanting one, and even picked out this general design when he was talking with me about making it a few years ago, but he decided not to go ahead with it at the time. So his wife secretly commissioned me to make it for this occasion.

Wood is Oak & Oak plywood. Stain is Minwax Dark Walnut, with 3 coats of poly on the most visible parts, 2 coats on the rest, 4 on the desktop. I found the design on a picture online and just tried to copy it, with very few alterations. It’s mostly held together with glue ad pocket screws, as well as some dados joining the main sides into the legs. It smells like poly right now, but hopefully a few weeks will dissipate most of the smell.

I made this plane before I really knew about how planes worked, (all i had was a block plane at the time). I made a few design errors such as putting the blade too far back, so that I don’t really get the advantage of the length like I wanted to. But I use it for quick removal of wood, and for that it works very well. the body is purpleheart, from turning blanks I bought at Woodcraft. The Tote is some scrap wood from an old sandbox that sat outside for years…I’m not sure what it is, but it’s hard. the knob I carved from a 2×4. I had some purplish stain lying around that I used on the handles, so it almost looks like they match now.

I’ll admit, this was inspired by reading “the Schwartz”. Mine is quite a bit smaller, but I think big enough for my use. I can still lift it, at least with its current load. Dovetailed carcass and skirt. Saw till inside and one sliding tray. I will add another tray when I get around to it. This was my first real attempt at dovetails other than a few practice tries, and they turned out pretty good once I sanded and planed them down and filled the cracks with wood putty (don’t tell).

I made this for my wife when she had our first child.

This piece was commissioned by my pastor, and now sits in his office.

I began by making one nightstand a few years ago, with open shelves under the drawer. A few months later, I made a second one, with a door. Later, I made this headboard out of 2×4s and some 1×3’s…with a few decorative shelf supports on the sides for decoration.