Hi all.
Here’s my submission for the garden bench contest. This bench is built from a single piece of old growth water recovered birch. The log that the board came from had sunk while being floated to the mill 165 years ago, and was recovered from the bottom of Georgian Bay, milled, and dried. The bench itself was shown in Canadian Woodworking Magazine, and features pegged joinery with bloodwood accents. Thanks for looking!

Ryan Shervill

Hi All. As I mentioned earlier, I am building this chest and filling it full of tools, then raffling it off at this years Canadian Home Workshop Show in Toronto. I will be donating 100% of the money raised to Habitat for Humainity.

I have a full blog set up with pictures, etc HERE . Pleast take a look, and leave me your comments or suggestions.

It really is a great cause, and I’m really looking forward to handing over the cheque :)

Ryan Shervill

Here it is, what I believe to be the worlds first Folding AND rocking Adirondack chair, and the first one built of TREX composite.

Built as a project article for Canadian Home Workshop Magazine (Full story/plans will be published in summer 2009), this chair was an engineering nightmare, requiring close to 50 hours of modelling and necessitating the construction of no less than four prototypes to get the telemetry correct. It has 12 pivot points with blind pivots, and uses two 3/4” copper pipes and 5/16” threaded rod as a torsion bar set-up to make the chair ridgid and to serve as the locking bar The rear pipe is captured in the runner base, the front locks into cutouts in the front legs when the chair opens creating constant tension on the frame of the chair and making everything super-rigid when open. The more weight applied to the chair, the stronger it gets!

The chair is constructed of TREX, copper pipe, and yes, as per the rules,...even wood, all bonded with Gorilla Glue. The pivot hinges are all “roto-hinges” from Lee Valley Tools, and they are maple pivots on a metal stem. These roto hinges were the very reason I chose Gorilla Glue to assemble the chair…I couldn’t find any adhesives that would bond the wood with the composite, so I gave the GG a try and it seems to work and is holding up fine. Considering this chair weighs over 80 (yes eighty) lbs and has been shipped for photography from Penetanguishene to Toronto to Manatoulin Island to Toronto and then back to Penetanguishene and stayed in one piece, I’d say that is a testimonial to the glue’s bond.

Thanks for looking!

Ryan Shervill

Hello all, with the recent discussions on curved legs and floating tops, I thought I’d share some pics of a piece I did I while back. This table was built for a woodworking competition a couple of years ago, and I just haven’t been able to bring myself to part with it since then….either that or I just havent been offered enough $$ :)

It’s built in my signature style, and made of “Wet Wood”, Virgin Old-growth timber that was logged about 165 years ago during the first cutting up here. The log became saturated and sank to the bottom of Georgian Bay while being floated to the mill. This particular log is Flame Birch, and was recovered from 130 feet of water. The red lumber is the heartwood from deep inside the tree, while the green board is part of the outer portion of the log that was buried in the mineral rich sediment on the bottom. That green colour is not a stain or dye of any kind, it is 100% natural….a result of minerals depositing themselves in the wood.

Heres a close-up of the legs/splined tennons. The legs start at 1 1/2” X 2 1/4”, and taper down to 7/8” square at the tips. (Excuse the dust!)

BTW, The sculpture is also made of old growth birch, and is sitting on a base of white oak that is actually a chunk fom the end of one of the recovered logs

And on the same topic, this is a bench that I made of the “not so showy part” of the same log for Canadian Woodworking Magazine.

Thanks for looking!

Ryan Shervill

About two weeks into this contest, I started to realize that the only shot I had at placing well was to pull off something that was “impossible” to do with a 2X4. Well…I did it.

Every source I could find said that softwoods can’t be steam bent, and there were a few attempts here by other LJ’s that seemed to back up that position. I spent two weeks working on ways to get this wood to bend, throwing conventional wisdom out the window and trying everything I could come up with. After far too many failed attempts, surrounded by broken, soggy, split and burnt strips of 2X4, I was about to throw in the towel and concede that it couldn’t be done. Some words of encouragement from fellow LJ’s took me from “I’m NOT doing this anymore” to “Well…I’ll give it one more shot”. Thank you for that.

I love organic and natural looking shapes in furniture, and had a vision in my head for a while of a side table that looked to be made up of cattail reed leaves. This contest was the perfect chance to build it. After a couple of studs went into the burn barrel, I found a 2X4 in my basement wall (really) that had knots down only one side, and it was there…not doing anything…so……out came the crowbar! Knot-free framing lumber is just not a reality up here I’m afraid….believe me, I looked….and looked….then looked some more.

I don’t like to use stains on wood (even a 2X4), but I wanted some contrast between the top and legs, so to get a darker amber tone the finish for the “legs” I used 7 coats of tung oil, rubbed out with 0000 steel wool between coats. The finish for the top is more coats of poly than I can count over a shellac sealer, Rubbed out to 2000 grit then buffed. I tried to capture the depth of the finish in the pics, but I’m not a great photographer I’m afraid.

The “leaves” intertwine to lock the table together, and it is surprisingly stable. By positioning the inner layers just right, I could tension the straight-grained leaves in such a way that they locked each-other in place.

Anyway, this project met the objectives I had set out at the beginning: Experiment, build something natural looking (that doesn’t look anything like a 2X4!), figure out how to steam bend softwood around a 4” radius, and most importantly….build something purely for the sake of building it.

Thanks for looking!

Ryan

Not just any box… “it’s all about the inside”

Here’s my submission for the 2008 challenge.

“It’s all about the inside”

To me, the inside of a box…especially a jewellery box, should be just as attractive as the outside (if not more so). I paid special attention to the inside details to try and achieve that. I carried the Birdseye and Cocobolo to the inside inlaying one with the other wherever possible. I lined the box, drawers, and compartments with burgundy suede. Although it is more work, I prefer natural materials and wood inside a fine box to flocking and ply. There was some inventing required, as the recipient wanted a place to hang her necklaces….but didn’t want a tall “cabinet style” box. What I came up with is the folding chain hanger in the top compartment. The “lid” and hinge are all one piece of birdseye to which I attached a strip of cocobolo at the top (with cocobolo dowels) equipped with hooks to hold the tops of the necklaces, the I sewed (gasp!) a small pouch out of the same suede to form a pouch to hold the bottoms of the chains. Now, when she wants to select a necklace, she swings up the holder and Voila! Hanging chains in a short box! The inside also features another swing-up compartment to hold stud earrings, a multiple slot ring holder in the same suede, and all kinds of nooks for the multitudes of “must haves” and “accessories” that women seem to accumulate.

The wood: This board was a TV star!

The body trim and legs are cocobolo, but it’s only there to frame the star of the show. Some of you may have seen a show on the Discovery Channel about old-growth lumber that has been recovered from the bottom of the deep water of Georgian Bay. In the episode they showed a board demonstrating the outstanding figure and grain tightness (45-60 rings per inch!) ….this is the board that was featured! I bought it two years ago, and have been waiting for that “perfect” project…this has to be it!
The tree that this came from was cut down 165 years ago, and while it was being floated to the mill it became waterlogged and slipped below the surface. It finally settled on the bottom, 130 feet below daylight. The 0 oxygen/ 0 light environment allowed this wood to remain perfectly preserved, waiting to be brought to the surface and given new life.
Great Birdseye figure is super tough to find (1/1000 trees)…now, try and find that one in a thousand in 130 feet of water.

The Finish:

This finish is my absolute favourite finish….but it is extremely time consuming. Every inch of this box (including the bottom) received French polish (padded-on shellac) over five coats of hand rubbed tung….my hands are still soft….yet sticky… at the same time :)

The Recipient:

(Hopefully this doesn’t sound too hokey)

This box is for my wife Chantelle. She is my biggest fan, strongest supporter, and truly my best friend. Chantelle will be giving me a special gift of my own in April….a brand new shiny baby girl! I’m actually giving her this box from the baby…kind of a “thank you for the last 9 months” gift. I’ll post her reaction when she recieves it.

Thanks for looking everybody, I appreciate it!

Hello all, I thought I’d share this set with you. The box is maka with curly soft maple, and the carved leaf motif is copied from the cover of the album inside the box. The “D” stands for Dean, the Groom’s last name.

Funny story behind this one….the Bride hired me to make the gift as a wedding gift for her groom. Through working with her on design, etc…I learned that the groom was, in fact, one of my childhood friends who I hadn’t spoken to in 25 years! I kept this little tidbit of info to myself, and giftwrapped the box when it was done so the bride couldn’t peak. I told her the invoice was placed discretely inside the album, and to not worry about payment until they returned from the honeymoon. Well, there was an invoice…..marked $0.00 balance due, and a picture of the groom and I together at the age of 6 :). It must have surely suprised them, because I got a thank you call at midnight on the wedding night! I mean, surely there must have been something better they could be doing their first night as a married couple than calling me ;-) Anyway, I was touched.

Thanks for looking!

Ryan

This one is Curly Cherry and Old-Growth Birdseye. I found the wood was so figured that I had to keep simplifying the design so it didn’t look “tacky”. Inside is a cove-cut removeable tray framed in cherry and floated with brass pins.

My last big Christmas order….the first 12 of a ltd. edition (of 100)
Curly maple with walnut and quarry stone inlay.

Made of Birdseye and Makka