This is a writing desk that I built for a quiet place where my kids can study.

The base and frame are made out of maple. The front and drawer fronts are cut from a single board for the continuous grain effect. The base joinery is all mortise and tenon. I was lucky with the wood selection. What looked like scrap maple in the rough turned out to have beautiful figure on the inside.

The top, drawer knobs and drawer sides are black walnut. I turned the knobs on my lathe and fixed them to the drawer fronts using a through wedged tenon.

The drawers are made with half blind dovetails on the front and through dovetails on the back. The drawer bottom is 1/2” thick book matched maple.

All of the walnut is finished with the oil finish made popular by Sam Maloof: 1/3rd BLO, 1/3rd Tung Oil, 1/3rd urethane (I used poly). The maple is finished with multiple coats of blonde shellac only.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this project. And as I sit here typing at the desk it is also a pleasure to use :).
Salem