Inspired by the works of Nakashima, Krenov and Maloof this piece is a tour d’force of sculptural beauty. The motif of the maritime leviathan conjures up images of Ahab, and hence the woodworkers obsession with finding order in the chaos of the unruly, imperfect material we have chosen to work with.

At least I think that’s what I was thinking when I banged it out in woodshop over twenty five years ago :)

Okay, well it’s 99% complete and since I started it almost exactly a year ago figured I’d post it. Still have a few dog holes to do and need to trim the end without the vice but other than that we are in business :) The top has walnut strips, and the whole bench is done in maple, weighs a ton and is solid as a rock. I’ve already gotten a ton of use out of it, and I’m looking forward to it giving me many years of faithful use.

Front vise is the Veritas twin screw and the end vise is just a big metal jobby (same one Schwarz recommends) based on a suggestion from one of the other Popular Woodworking editors I just glued the pieces that the twin screw passes through, seeing just how strong these glues are (they are supposed to be stronger than the wood so I don’t really expect any issues) so far so good, but it’s early days.

Anyway, it was a great project and I’m really pleased with how it came out and that I didn’t settle for a store bought one (I was close).

The last of the Christmas boxes rolls off the ‘production’ line :) This one is walnut and birdseye maple, I used surface mounting hinges this time around because I never quite got perfect results mortising the Brusso ones in, I quite like the way the brass looks against the walnut though.

After four variations of this box I think it’s time to move onto something new, but it was nice working on projects that were of a smaller scale than my usual fare, and I see a few more of these in my future.

The finish is a simple wipe on poly (and I still need to do finish the bit where I cut the top off).

So another of the FWW boxes, this one came out pretty nicely.

Just a couple of simple rosewood and maple boxes (from the article by Doug Stowe in this months Fine Woodworking)

On a cold and rainy afternoon my whisky table was finally ready to go into action. Information on the design and build as well as some other pics can be find over on my blog. The top is made from some Zerbra wood while the base is made from Walnut all plucked from my leftover pile and the finish is four coats of Sam Maloof poly/oil and two coats of oil/wax. The whisky is the Balvenie Doublewood, highly recommended :)

The pics in the blog are clearer, I was trying to catch the glow of the fire but the shots just came out murky, ah well :)

In the second pic you get to see three of my projects all together, the fireplace, dining room table in the background and my nice new side table :) You also get to see yours truly with a beard…

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So I’m entering this in the 2010 Winter Awards because I think this piece really captures the yin & yang created by using contrasting but complimentary woods. I was always at a bit of a loss as to how to use Zebrawood without it appearing garish and I think this paring with walnut, maple dowels and the mellowing effect of a hand rubbed oil finish really makes the piece work.

Of course I also love it because it’s held more than a few tipples since I built it :)

Cheers!

Just a real simple dining room table. Legs and frame are red oak, and the top is a sheet of quarter sawn white oak ply, edged with solid white oak. Rails are attached with mortise and tenons. I’ve pretty much posted my projects in reverse chronological order which is why they are getting worse not better :) I only have one last thing to post which was my first project (so this was my second).

I originally started this project in our old house which had a smaller dining room, I’d already built the frame but it was only going to seat six so after we moved I had to make the longer rails, popped the top on it et voila. It’s a bit rough and ready but does the trick, and with my 16 month old banging away at it every night it would be a shame if it was heirloom quality :) That’s my excuse anyway.

Here is the fireplace I built, the previous owners had covered the brick that lies beneath with some left over marble they also used in the bathroom, looked awful. So ripped all that out and redid the whole thing. So new mantle, new tile, and a new hearth. Finish is sprayed oil. Still have a little trim work around the hearth but it’s 99% done.

Just a little box that I made for my wife made from Zebra wood. Simple little miters for the corners, and the top and bottom are floating panels.

The one mistake I made with this box was the location of the hinges, they should have been on the opposite side because the grain wraps around both sides on the opposite side (you can see on the open shot it doesn’t match on that lower right hand side corner) Turned out okay though because now the front has a cool looking jag on the front that you wouldn’t have ordinarily seen.

Finish is Maloof Poly/Oil & Oil/Wax

So this piece was inspired by the one that Pottery Barn sells, but I made Fins a tad fancier. The headboard and bow are made with a walnut frame, and a teak and holly panel. Four drawers in the bow, two accessed by flipping open top, and the bottom two swing out on soss hinges, there is a caster under the drawer that it rolls out on for added support.

The drawers were pretty challenging and as they are two sets of bent laminations that twist and had to match up in the middle (should have made them as one piece and then band sawed them into two pieces. The rails are topped with walnut, using dowels and glue to attach them (the dowels are maple and look great against the walnut)

Firsts for this projects :- spraying (it’s Target coatings water based lacquer) doweling (the frame for the bow is doweled) torsion boxes – the headboard, and the bow are both attached to torsion boxes (with the long rails attached to the torsion boxes using bed hanger bolts)

Took a while but Fin loves it :)

The frame is walnut while the panel is veneered birdseye maple, and the legs are attached to the rails with sliding dovetails.

Learning quite a lot with this project, first time I’ve done sliding dovetails. These were made using a pretty standard shopbuilt mortising jig (that I built for this project) although it probably would have been easier just doing them on the router table.

It’s also the first time I’ve done any veneering. I built a vacuum pump system using the plans from joewoodworker.com. Dead easy. The substrate for the panel is MDF which is a great material for veneering as it’s very flat and extremely stable.