I failed to take a “before” picture, but this piece was primed white and painted rusty milk paint red with gold paint “gilding” on the thumbnail molding profile around each window pane.

I sometimes wish pieces could talk. This one has an interesting lost story. I asked the owner if she knew anything about it but she had purchased it inexpensively out of a dealer’s estate and knew nothing of its history. This piece was obviously made exclusively with hand tools. The boards are hand planed, the rails/stiles/sashes have molding profiles either cut with molding planes or a scratch stock. All the joints are pegged with hand-made pegs. In my opinion, an old “handyman” piece made by a skilled farmer/rancher. The drawer cases are just nailed together and obviously constructed again, with plane and handtools. I wouldn’t be surprised if the wood was cut, dried and milled by the crafter.

The wood-type was a mystery to me though. I thought it was walnut at first, but the more I stripped and scraped and sanded, the more a reddish/salmon colored wood emerged. After a little research, and living in Texas, I thought it was perhaps mesquite – but unlike the description of mesquite, it isn’t a hard/dense wood. Quite soft, in fact. Doesn’t smell like cedar. For density and grain pattern (in some places), it reminded me of Mahogany, but the color? It didn’t look good with a clear finish test spot though – very unattractive, in fact. So, I used dark stain and laquer top coat.

Since it was clearly a “primitive” piece when it came to me, I did sand it some, but I actually tried not to remove all the rough spots which give it its character (and someone had tried to cover with paint).

It’s been a good while since I’ve participated much on lumberjocks. Therefore, I’ve been out of the practice of taking pictures along the way. So, it’s hard to describe what this looked like in a “before” picture.

Basically all the case joints and drawer cases were loose and required regluing. I removed shelf liner from the drawer interiors and replaced the drawer bottoms. Remounted the mirror with new clips. And oh yeah, it was COVERED in thick green/white paint. Someone in the past had attempted a green paint undercoat with a white paint overcoat in hopes that it would crackle and look old/distressed. Didn’t work, and had obviously been sitting in someone’s shed/barn for a long time (dirty). Fortunately, the piece had been finished before it was painted, so with the exception of a few places, the paint did not penetrate into the oak grain. But geez, maybe four hours of woodworking repairs/regluing and 30+ hours of paint removal sanding, stripping, picking, scraping and refinishing.

I knew something somewhere was probably wrong underneath all that paint though – and it was the doors. Badly broken, poorly repaired and veneer loss. So I replaced the doors and hinges. What pleased me most was my first attempt at a fake matching grain finish on the doors which are actually made out of china birch ply (not perfect but decent). I’ve had the tool to create a fake grain finish for some time and I was able to make it work acceptably!

Not great pictures and it’s a little dusty waiting for pick-up.

I’m not sure what the week holds in the way of time in the shop to finalize my entry. There will be walnut handles above the drawers, rare earth magnets holding the drawers closed and an adapted jewlery box lock to hold the lid shut. Those details will change the appearance of my entry somewhat but I don’t need the extra pressure this week. I think you can get a good idea of it from these pics.

This is a downsized adaptation of a box shown in Tolpin’s book: The Toolbox Book

Black Walnut, Ash, Poplar, Pallet Oak and Oak ply

Two coats of Deft Satin Spray Laquer

18” long x 14” high x 9.25” wide

I hand-cut the dovetails on the walnut and ash trays. The tray arrangement and tray handles are my own design. I felt pushed for time, so the drawer half-blind dovetails were made with a PC jig. There’s two other drawers on the other end of the box.

I probably won’t stick with the pictured pulls either, but I’ll post completed pictures next month on my blog entry for this box.

My apologies for the way this project is ending with a whimper instead of a climax.

I have been blogging this project over the past 8 months and began it over a year ago. Yet, my friend still caught me by surprise and dropped by my office/study to see if he could pick up one of the pieces and transport it home. (I live across the street from my church/office/study.) In my last blog entry, I told everyone I finally got the knobs on, was going to dust them off and take good pictures to share. Yet, I couldn’t make him wait any longer than taking these three hasty pics of the dusty group.

Two group shots and one of what you can do with a Porter Cable Dovetail Jig (4212, I believe).

Maybe I’ll get some more close-ups of the remaining chest and bed frame on a last blog entry before he returns. But who knows?

Well, I guess I may as well go ahead and post the pictures of my self-designed plant stand.

It’s overall height is 30” comprised of 12 laminated staves.

The dodecagon top is approximately 6” in diameter. I “veneered” the top with 12 triangular wedges to form the pattern.

Some the details of construction begin here
Joined to the top and a twelve spoke wheel with round head brass screws.

I created the pattern on the top of the staves with my mortise machine and then joined the two diamonds by raising the table saw blade through the staves. The diamonds at the bottom of each stave were formed with the mortise machine as well.

Close up pic of the bottom here

Could have sanded more and used a wood conditioner, but need to move on to the box part of the challenge. Finished with “Mission” stain from Rockler and Satin Polyurethane.

It has kind of a “Arts-and-Crafts-African-Folk-Art” feel to it.

Nothing earth shattering, just been a while since I posted any projects, so digging through the picture archives.

A friend was tearing down a barn and I helped him for all the barn boards I wanted.

These aren’t “new” projects – I built the first two four or five years ago for friends (built a corner cabinet – tv stand, too, but didn’t get a picture of it) and the third piece (potting bench) around the same time for my wife and sits on our terrace.

Interesting challenges when working with barn wood. Lots of slivers in your hands. You really can’t depend on a straight edge or a flat plane to use as a reference. You don’t want to ruin the gray weathered look by creating a straight edge either. “Good” joinery is therefore difficult, if not impossible (uneven or warped board surface creates a varied depth dado, etc.) – just nailed and screwed together. Glue really doesn’t help for the soft weathered surface just pulls off when the glue dries. Matching the color of the weathering from board to board was an unexpected challenge as well. I disliked the color variations on the cabinet doors, but it was also nice to have a single board wide enough to cut to length and use as the doors!

It’s supposed to look rustic, right?

Well, it’s not really “my” project. But it is what I worked on November 11-17, 2007 as a joint project between the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination and the Jefferson County Habitat for Humanity in Beaumont, TX. We (the national denomination) provided the $100,000 capital donation to Habitat for the materials and affiliate financing of the two houses with the partner families and the volunteers from all over the nation for the two week-two house “Blitz Build.” Both partner families were Hurricane Rita affected.

A great, relaxing and fulfilling week.

I’ve been admiring all the wonderful business card holders that have been posted recently.

So, with some trepidation I post these pictures of a card holder I made over twenty five years ago – I believe it was in my late teens. In those days of youth, I loved going to farm auctions almost every weekend if possible, trying to buy old woodworking hand tools (many of which I still have) and day-dreaming of making fine hand crafted furniture. I was even an early subscriber to Fine Woodworking magazine in the black and white days. Yet, I never stepped out in that direction. Long story, but when I stepped in the direction of another call, doors flew open and I was swept along in Christian ministry. I joyful and meaningful life.

My sister-in-law at the time brought me some black walnut scraps from her uncle’s mill. I set out to make this holder that I believe is in a black and white issue of Fine Woodworking. I made it in a corner of the basement of my boyhood home with a belt sander, handsaw, chisel and probably my Father’s old scarey-dangerous Craftsman table top table saw. A bit dusty in the pictures, you can see the “hand-tooled” interior. Every once in while I think I should find that article again and “do it right.” But on the other hand, every once in a while I also think, “Not bad considering the tools you had.” It reminds me that I don’t absolutely have to have all the bells and whistles and shop space I have now.

It has sat on my desk for the last twenty years.

Blast from the past.

I was looking through some pictures and came across this curio cabinet. This is one of the first projects I remember building – about thirty years ago when I was in High School. I made it as a wedding present for my church High School youth group sponsor and her new husband.

As I recall, it’s made of pine with left over scraps of hardwood flooring used for the back. Even then, I liked the idea of re-using wood.

I made this silverware chest for a friend and his bride as a wedding present a couple of years ago. Designed and built around an insert from Rockler. Satin Srpay Laquer. Wish I would have had time to do something interesting inside the lid, but I barely got this much done in time for the finish to dry in time for the wedding.

Don’t tell, but I recycled the mahogany from a book shelf unit that was being tossed.

Sorry the 2nd & 3rd pictures aren’t that great – blurry.

I made this last year and gave it to my teen daughter for Christmas.

Simple lines, but I like it.

Satin Spray Laquer Finish

I built this Windsor chair in a week-long Windsor Chair class I took with David Wright, Windsor chair maker from Berea, KY.

Traditional green wood construction. Mr. Wright rived (split the wood with the grain) a “kit” of all the necesssary rough sticks of wood from the green log for each class member to make the legs, spindles, arms, stretchers, etc. – The seat blank was the only dry wood.

Then, we sat all week on a shaving horse with a drawshave and spokeshave making the back spindles, the steam bent back bow and steam bent arm bow by hand. We used a hand scorp, draw shave & spokeshave to scoop out and shape the seat. Brace and bit for holes to recieve spindles, legs, etc., – back spindles and legs all wedged. It was my first foray into turning as well for the legs and stretcher parts. I understand that a famous Windsor Chair maker, who wrote a book on the subject, provides pre-turned legs for his students. This was a fun class but I was physically exhausted at the end of the week.

After turning the legs and stretcher parts, some are put into a simple drying kiln and others are left green. The grain in the green stretcher parts is oriented in such a way to the dry stetcher parts that after assembly and the wood of the green parts dries, the parts lock together. We used very tight tenons and glue, too, but as the round green parts dry they actually dry into a slightly oval shape in a round hole which binds the parts together mechanically as well. It’s not “supposed” to ever come apart. Traditional mik paint finish.

Someday, I would like to try make another.

Since all the present projects seem to be “in process,” I thought I would post this hutch that I buiilt some time ago for our dining room. It wasn’t long after I moved to Texas 11.5 years ago, that I attended an estate auction sale about an hour away. The tools were okay but at the sale were three large piles of assorted hardwoods (200-300bf each) – oak, ash, & poplar – maybe other species, too. I don’t remember now. The story was that the deceased was a woodworker that traveled about in his retirement. As he traveled, he visited sawmills and brought back wood laid in the length of his RV. There were some tremendous pieces of wood in these stacks. (I still have two or three 12 foot by 15” oak boards that I can’t bear to cut for small projects and I don’t need a harvest table.)

Attending auctions is recreational for me, and if I have time (not too often anymore), I go whether I have money to spend or not. This time I had maybe a bit of cash for a coke and sandwich, and the family check book.

The piles came up for sale, nobody was bidding and in moments, the opening fair price was steadily being reduced by the auctioneer! Thoughts raced – my wife has a harder time in seeing the potential before the fact – what would she say if I spent money for wood we couldn’t really afford to spend? How would I get it home? I was an hour away driving a Toyota Corolla compact car. Would they let me leave it there until Sunday, but Sunday is a “work” day for me. Could I race home, borrow a truck and get back before they wanted to be gone for the day? I had no answers but I couldn’t stand it! I opened the bidding at $30 for choice of piles and won the bid at $50. Now, do I take one or all three? In moments, I compromised with all the unanswered questions and took just one stack. I proceeded to move the stack over beside my car in some kind of absurd notion that I could somehow stick 12’ boards out the windows or strap it on top. Long story short, the deceased’s son saw my plight, probably smiled to himself and had pity on me. I came over and said, “Need help?” and hauled it home for me in cattle trailer. The wife was only mildly displeased that I spent $50 on wood after much assurance about what could be produced from it. And after the act of kindness by the son and later the hutch materializing from the stack, my wife and I both agreed in hindsight that I should have took it all. I could have had nearly 1,000 bf of hardwoods for $150.00! Oh well, my heart is racing retelling the story. Let it go. Let it go.

The hutch is made from ash from the pile. I tried to create the crown molding with some of my antique tools but gave up and ordered it after ruining several lengths of wood. The bead detail around the door frames is made with a wooden side bead molding plane (not an added strip but a part of the frame). The design is an adaptation of a hutch found in American Woodworking Mag several years ago. The magazine plan has open shelves. My wife wanted glass doors.

I had a couple of goals for my table entry.

1. I wanted to use reclaimed oak and left overs from previous projects. I did (see blog)thus, red oak and walnut.

2. Although I’m a big fan of how “substantial” mission/arts & crafts furniture (see my other projects), I wanted to experiment and try to make my Greene Thorsen table feel “lighter.”

So, I made the top out of 1/2’ stock with 3/4” breadboards. I downsized the legs to 1” sqare sticks. I also added a reverse cloud lift on the tops of the aprons. I then attached the top to the table with four small walnut dowels – leaving a gap and elevating the top 1/4”. My goal was to give the impression of a floating top.

I went with walnut appliques that are downsized imitations of the cut outs. On one, I imitated the negative space. On the other. the positive space. I did this on purpose but I probably should have been consistent. But further, I think the full size cut-outs would have been a better choice and would have helped it feel lighter. Or perhaps the aprons needed to be downsized in width as well. If feels a bit top heavy to me.

When I downsized the leg t & w, I didn’t change the mortise and tenon joinery. Dowels or bisquits would have been a better choice. There wasn’t much left to glue the tenons into.

I finished the piece with Minwax Golden Pecan Oil Stain and three coats of brushed Deft laquer. I need to rub out the finish some more, but here it is – my entry.

I mess around with collecting old tools and old fishing tackle. I made three of these to sell/trade at an antique fishing tackle show I attended last weekend. (Sold two) The folks that set up next to me at the show called it an artifact chest and suggested I make more and attend artifact shows (native american axe heads, arrow points, etc.) I left the lining,
padding, etc. for the drawers up to the buyer Approximately 12”x12”x24”

Stained red oak and red oak plywood, pine as the secondary wood on the drawers. This was my “guinea pig” project for testing out my new Porter Cable dovetail jig for the half-blind dovetails. It worked pretty well. Yet, it’s all about being careful each time in the set-up to get a tight fit. You can see that the drawer slide system is wood runners mounted inside the chest and a dado cut in the sides of the drawers to accomodate the runners. The drawers are interchangeable for rotating displays of collectables to be seen through the top glass as desired.

A fun project of my own design but based on the principle of collectables coffee tables and map chests that I’ve viewed in the past.

I have three main hobbies: 1. Woodworking 2. Collecting Old Fishing Tackle 3. Collecting Old Woodworking Tools

My wife and I came to an agreement a few years ago that my hobbies needed to be self-sustaining. In other words, no capital influx from the family budget. To that end, I moonlight a bit, peddle and barter. I’ve sold collections that I’ve accumulated and enjoyed in order to attend week-long woodworking classes. I build and refinish things for friends and others in order to buy a tool or two out of whatever I charge beyond the materials cost. I don’t seek anything close to a living wage from what I do. I do it for the experience/skill building and to keep the hobbies supplied and going.

Here’s some things I’ve built to peddle, barter and trade at old tackle shows:

1. Custom Displays – the lidded display boxes and stands are separate, there’s a piece of plate glass mounted inside the boxes with glass door hinges to protect the displayed tackle below, the interior of the lids are marquetry (wood veneers cut and assembled into a picture). Since spouses don’t always appreciate our collections, I designed the display to be an attractive piece of furniture with the lid closed. Heddon and Creek Chub are two of the most popular old tackle companies to collect. So many Ooooos and Ahhhhs, but so few willing to pay!

2. Dip nets

3. Table-top Oak Storage Chests for collectable tackle – believe me there’s a lot of collectors that can fill several of these! They’re based on a machinist chest but the drawers are divided into compartments like a tackle box. Unfortunately most collectors I’ve met would rather spend their money on the next old lure or reel than an attractive organizational chest like this. Ditto on the Ooooos and Ahhhhs

These were all speculation pieces and I didn’t get near the value of my time out of them. So I try to relax and repeat the mantra – “you’re working on experience and skill!” and as long as I have enough that the hobbies “break even,” I’m good.

Wood magazine plans with minor adaptations – The curved arm Morris is in my home. The couch and matching chair were built for friends. I built another couch for our home after the wife saw this one. I’m currently building a craftsman style bed frame and two chests of drawers for the same friends for which I built the couch and chair.

Another matching Morris for our home is on the future projects list.

As you can see, I used regular red oak, not quartersawn white oak.

Three to five years ago(?), American Woodworker Magazine had an “Ultimate Workbench” as a cover story. It was basically three plywood boxes bound together as a heavy solid base with a frame and panel exterior applied to conceal the boxes. Each “box” was open on the front and provided space for under bench storage. In the magazine, the two end boxes had doors concealing three interior drawers and the center box held three exposed doors.

I created my own “Craftsman/Mission” style exterior shell and eliminated the doors on the outer boxes. I took the bench top from my previous bench and mounted it on this new base. Except for the quartersawn veneer and 2/3rds of the drawers slides, much of this bench was created from “found” wood in oak pallets, plywood and even a particle board desk top & ping pong table top that was being thrown away. Too cheap to buy the reproduction craftsman drawer pulls, I designed and made my own.

I built this tool chest about 10 years ago to store my maternal and fraternal grandfathers’ tools which I was fortunate to inherit.