This trestle bench was a piece I built at a local college woodworking course. The course was four full days so I took the time off work and spent the entire week working on this bench. That week has got me wondering if I can somehow take a few months off and get to the inside passage school of woodworking. I absolutely loved getting up every morning knowing I had another full day of woodworking and learning ahead of me.

The basic form of the bench follows the instructor’s plan, we had the option of going with a wedged mortise or a wedged through dovetail, I chose the wedged dovetail. I took this course specifically to get instruction and practice on the through joinery. I spent the better part of one of the days working the mortises with a chisel. These are my first through mortises and I am quite happy with how they turned out.

After the four days was up, I still hadn’t decided on the final shaping. So I brought it home, created a sketchup model of it and spent some time playing with design options. I finally decided on what you see here, slight taper to the seat ends, quarter circle cut outs on the seats and the gables, I also added the 3/16” bead detail to the trestle (I had to buy a plunge beading router bit for that). Finally I decided to angle the trestle ends as well as rounding over the edges of it and the wedges.
As I started to sand the bench for finishing, I noticed that two ends of the seats were checking…I felt sick. Conveniently there was a Woodwhisperer guild meeting a couple days later, so I threw the question out at the meeting and was given a bunch of suggestions on how to deal with it. I ended up going with a bit of CA glue and sawdust, the cracks hardly show and I think they’ve stopped spreading. A big thanks to Marc and the rest of the guys online that night!

The bench is made of 8/4 Big Leaf Maple with Jatoba for the wedges, seat anchors and the four “pins” used to keep the seat slats aligned. For finishing this piece I planed or scraped all the flat surfaces and went straight to 220 grit for the final sanding. That seemed faster than going through 3 grits of sandpaper, and I certainly enjoyed it more. Finished with three coats of danish oil and two coats of water based poly. The bench is four feet long and about 16 inches tall.

thanks for looking…Devin.

I made this box as a gift for my mother (shhh, she’ll be opening it on the 27th). It will be used to package a Sake set, but after that she can use it for whatever she likes. Lacewood sides, birds eye maple for the top (and keys and lid stays) and maple ply for the bottom. Although it’s “my own” design, I’m sure the Doug Stowe influence is obvious to everyone ;). I thought the dark patches in the maple would add interest to the lid, but next time I think I’ll stick to more pure maple to contrast the colours between the sides and the top.
Approximately 9×6x3, finished with a couple coats of Danish Oil and three coats of poly.

I still have the other half of the resawn lid, anyone have any ideas how I might make that birds eye, with dark streaks really pop?

Having made one box, I can see how this might become an addiction…can’t wait :)
thanks for looking, Devin.

I originally learned of this style of knife block from this site. While reading the comments on his page I stumbled across this site (there are some nice pieces in there) and that was when I decided I needed to make one of these myself.
I used Sketchup to get some ideas down and then made a quick prototype to ensure that the knives would stay in place with a 45 degree angle and to ensure that the size looked right in the kitchen.
I’ve used Maple and Walnut on this piece, finished with a couple coats of Watco’s Danish Oil, I’ll be applying two coats of poly or varathane in a couple days. There are over 1800 skewers in the main section alone. The bottom section is for steak knives and as a last minute addition I decided to add the slot for a pair of scissors.
I had grossly underestimated the amount of fiddling around that walnut trim was going to cause. If I were to make another one of these I think I would simplify the design, maybe use nicer wood rather than try to design interesting elements into it. I really struggled with all the mitres, cutting them accurately was easy enough but getting them to stay in place while clamping was a real challenge (and I really don’t like challenges or surprises after I’ve applied glue to wood).

Here it is with a few knives in it…

Thanks for looking, Devin.

I wanted to try out my new Leigh D4R Jig and decided to make a small recycling bin for under my desk. There’s definitely some learning to do before you use the jig, but in the end it made short work of these dovetails. I just threw some scrap pine together and I think the way the dovetails turned out speaks volumes for the jig. For some reason I was trying to make the pins and tails similar in size, next time I’ll experiment with the variable sized pins/tails that the D4R allows.
Bottom line, this box looks much nicer than the old cardboard box I used for years.

Thanks for looking, D

Maple and walnut cutting board I made for my mom, she was using an old, split piece of a cutting board that she insisted was her favourite because of the handle. So I thought I’d make her a new one in the same shape. Like a lot of cutting boards, mine is made from scraps I had in the shop, finished with many applications of mineral oil.

I had to take a knife to the surface once I’d given it to her as she basically refused use it for fear of scratching the board… :)

thanks for looking,
D

This is a combination raised garden bed and potting bench. The planter portion of the piece is removable so that it can be replaced easily when it starts to rot and fall apart. The entire thing is 4 feet by 2 feet and about 30 inches tall (built to my girlfriends specifications).
Made out of cheap fencing/decking cedar stock from Home Depot…in other words, soaking wet wood that I stickered and let dry for about 3 months. Machined it all until it was straight and then used plugged screws, glue and traditional joinery to assemble it all.
I had toyed with the idea of finishing it (I love the look of fresh cedar) but that means I’d have to refinish it every year or two…so I think it’s going to just age naturally.

Thanks for looking,
D

This cabinet was started as part of a night class in introductory woodworking hosted at a local college. Having not actually done any real woodworking since highschool (over 20 years ago) I thought it made sense to take a course to refresh my memory on the basics (I like my fingers at their current length). The course was excellent and certainly filled in a bunch of missing pieces for me. Limited shop space and tools for the class meant that I brought much of my work home with me to keep the piece progressing. Apparently nobody in any class has ever finished the wall hung cabinet during the class schedule. Sadly, I suspect this means there are many that never get finished at all. Mine was no exception, when the classes were finished I had not yet hung the doors, fit the back, finished the drawers, made the shelves and of course the final sanding and finishing had not been done either. I’m very happy I have a shop that enabled me to finish this up.
I decided to add the door stop at the top and to use rare earth magnets in both it and the doors to act as latches. I picked up all the hardware at Lee Valley and am very pleased with how it suits the arts and craft design.

Edge grain fir throughout, door panels are edge grain fir ply and the plugs are walnut.
It’s finished with three coats of danish oil and two coats of wax.

Aside from some basic tool safety and use, the number one thing this course reinforced for me was the importance of patience and attention to detail.
As for its use, originally I’d thought I might use it as a small tool cabinet in my shop…I think it’s serving a much more noble function as a cradle for some of my finer single malts ;).

Thanks for looking…
D

These are my first three attempts at turning. The first one was made from some cherry that a buddy of mine gave me (he’s a turner and salvaged this wood from a neighbour’s tree). This first bowl taught me the basics of turning and most importantly it taught me that you really need to pay attention to your depth when hollowing out the bowl :(.

The next two attempts were much more rewarding. Both made from some Norway Maple that another friend gave me (he works for the city tree service). The live edge bowl was an interesting experience, turning that much air got a little scary at times. Since it was my third bowl I got a little more brave and decided to see how thin I could turn it. I stopped at about 1/8” thick, however the thickness isn’t as consistent as I’d like. I can see light through it at the transition point between the sides and bottom.

thanks for checking them out…