Here is the dining room table that I built prior to making the matching chairs that I previously posted on LJ. The table is primarily cherry with walnut pegs. It measures 42” wide by 82” long. It seats six comfortably.

The sister asked for a secretary desk to match her bedroom furniture. Currently, she uses a card table to do all her banking and she wanted a work space that she could close up and hide the mess. She gave me some rough dimensions and left the design up to me. It is made from cherry and cherry plywood. Finish is just a couple of coats of danish oil.

I went back and forth on the desk hardware. I ended up just going with some solid antique brass hinges from Horton Brasses. I ordered some chrome stops from Rockler (item 30741) that would have worked great, but didn’t like the chrome finish with the cherry and brass, so I decided to go without. The bottom supports the desk about 4 inches and it seems pretty secure. If the desk needs support later, I can always add the stops.

The knobs and pulls came through mail-order Lowes and match her bedroom hardware very nicely. Lowe’s screwed up the order by sending 4 matching knobs and 1 different knob. I used the different knob for the desk pull-down and it looks great. My sister won’t even notice.

I still need practice on my dovetails. I use the Leigh D1600 dovetail jig, but don’t use it enough to get really good at them. Thanks for looking.

From the moment I first saw a wood strip canoe, I knew I wanted to build one. I researched and found Bear Mountain Boat company online. (Note: There are a lot of companies to consider. I chose Bear Mountain because I really liked their online building forum that allowed me to read about a lot of other people’s experiences with their builds. I found this extremely helpful as I ran into different challenges along the way). I purchased a set of plans for their Hiawatha canoe, a copy of Canoecraft by Ted Moores, and off I went. The pictures I posted show various parts of the construction process.

Picture #1 is the finished product sitting on my lawn the day I finished her up.
Picture #2 shows a variety of things. First, I am in the process of milling the wood. I bought 16’ lengths of western red cedar that I ripped to slightly larger than 1/4”. I am in the process of planing all the lengths down to precisely 1/4”. You can see on the table that the strips are grouped together. This is so I can keep track of the color variations in the wood and helps in the selection process when planks are installed on the forms. After planing the wood, I sent all the strips through the router to receive a bead and cove on opposite ends of the planks. You can also see the skeleton of forms on the left side of this picture.
Picture #3 shows me stripping one side of the forms. I glued up three strips at a time alternating between sides. My shop is kind of small, so I had to slide the strongback (what everything sits on) back and forth so I could alternate between sides. The cedar is so light that this wasn’t as big a deal as I thought it might be.
Picture #4 shows me fiberglassing the outside of the hull. This step intimidated me the most and wasn’t as bad as I envisioned. Fiberglassing the inside was a little more challenging due to tight spots at the ends of the canoe, but, overall, I worried way too much about this step.
Picture #5 shows the trimming out of the hull. The gunwales are installed as well as the yoke and the seat frames. This felt more like woodworking than any other part of the process. You can get very creative with how you trim the canoe. I kept it pretty simple.
Picture #6 shows launch day. January of 2012 was the launch. That picture is me shoving off for the first time.

If you ever thought about building a wood strip canoe, I would strongly encourage you to do it. I found the build to be one of the more rewarding projects I have done. And it is easily the most complimented. There is just something about a wood canoe.

One more thought. I chose the Hiawatha design because I liked the look of the curved ends (challenging to trim out, as it turns out) on a canoe (more traditional in my opinion). It also was advertised as an easy canoe to paddle (I am a novice paddler), and it seated two. The canoe measures just over 15’ in length with a beam of 33.5” and weighs right at 50 pounds.

I had a little walnut burl veneer left over from a vanity I had made my wife last summer. Thought I would cap it off with a matching jewelry box. The box and drawers are solid walnut and the drawers have the walnut burl fronts. Purple is her favorite color, so I lined the drawer bottoms with the purple velvet. It looks real nice set against the walnut.

The original plan was to make six cherry dining room chairs to complement a table I had made the previous year. My first problem was that I already had a set of four chairs that worked perfectly fine (even if they weren’t the most stylish chairs). My second problem was the complexity of the design (at least for me, anyway) that I chose for the backs of the chairs. This was the project that I gladly put down to work on any other project that I could find. Finally, after about a year after starting, I finished four chairs and have pieces for two additional chairs cut awaiting sanding and assembly. I figure they will get done sometime this year (unless I find other projects that are less time-consuming).

I saw something similar to this in a restaurant and liked it. Stripes are cherry and maple and the star area is walnut. I debated what to do about the stars and decided to just leave the area blank. The flag measures 20” high by 37” wide.

My youngest son wanted a box to keep his coin collection in. This box is made from maple with cherry splines. Inside, there are three levels for storage. The middle level has a box that slides from one end to the other. The top level has a box that lifts out. This was my first attempt at mortising the lock and hinges into the sides.

Overall, I was pleased with the outcome. In hindsight, I wish I would have used a nicer wood for the top and maybe personalized it somehow (initials, name, etc).

Years ago my son asked me to make him a chess board. He had a set of Alaskan chess pieces that he wanted a board for. So I made him the board with storage for the pieces underneath. Because of the size of the pieces, the board came in rather large at 20”x20”. When he left home for college, the board was too large to go with. With his permission, I removed the feet on the board and replaced them with legs. Now the chess set makes a perfectly sized end table. The top has gotten scratched up from a lamp sitting on top of it. Nothing a little sanding won’t take care of should he re-claim it.

Like many, cutting boards were part of my early learning curve as I tried to improve my skills as a woodworker. They are easy to construct, don’t take too much time to finish, and make great gifts. I have included a sampling of some of the different styles I have played around with over the years.

This is the project that started my love of woodworking. Originally, I planned it to be about 5 inches high. After a couple of bad cuts on the table saw, it ended up being just shy of 4 inches in height. After I put the poker chips in, I have about 1/16th of an inch to spare under the lid. Friends tell me they like the sleek design. I just smile knowingly.

Side note: I have been stalking everyone’s work on LJ for about a year. Your creativity and craftsmanship are truly inspiring. I decided to finally join and show some of my work from over the years. Knowing that I will be posting on LJ in the future ups the craftsmanship bar for me.