I received a number of hand tools for Christmas and needed someplace to store them. I also had some reclaimed lumber that and some perfboard lying about the shop. Here’s the result, attached to the wall with french cleats. I know it’s not the fanciest tool cabinet ever displayed on Lumberjocks, but it is functional, and now I can actually use my workbench, which has been cleared of all the new tools. The tool racks and hangers came from the scrap bin, and the only real cost was for the piano hinges and screws.

This window came from the house where my wife grew up, which is the house in the picture. She salvaged this window and three more when new windows were installed about a year ago. The house is up for sale now, and I thought this would be a good way to remember it as it was in the days when my wife was a little girl. The framing around the window is cherry finished with Danish oil.

This recipe box was Christmas gift for my wife. We recently did a kitchen renovation, and the top panel of the box lid is made from a scrap left over from that job. The box itself is made of cherry finished with Danish oil. I used matching chamfers along the hinge line to form a stop for the lid.

Yet another box made for my wife to give as a Christmas gift.

Here’s my version of the Shopnotes deadblow mallet. The head is oak and the handle is cherry. There are several ounces of lead sinkers in the cavities in the head. The finish is Danish oil.

This piece was made for a friend whose wife passed away nearly three years ago. He wanted something to place in the church as a memorial to her. He chose the plan and the lumber and served as my helper in the shop as we worked on the cupboard. It is all 3/4 solid oak except for the back, which is oak plywood. The project took nearly a year to complete, since we were able to work only on Friday afternoons, and often scheduling conflicts prevented even that. We finally finished it in October and dedicated it in the church on All Saints’ Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012. It will be used to store and display leaflets and other materials for visitors to the church.

I made this hand plane from a Hock kit in just one afternoon. The body is jarrah and the wedge is maple. It is finished with Danish oil. Adjustment is very easy with the little hammer that I made from a brass plumbing fixture and oak dowel. It cuts a very fine shaving.

Another box made from scraps from the wood bin. Made of oak with oak plywood top panel and walnut keys.

I recently attended a session at Roy Underhill’s Woodwright’s School in Pittsboro, NC, and made this jointer plane. It’s all hand tool work, of course, and I learned quite a bit about the theory of plane design and construction. I also used tools that I had never used before, such as the planemaker’s floats and scraper chisel. The instructor for the course was Bill Anderson, who is pictured in the center of the next-to-last photo. Roy, shown in the last photo, was there in the shop two out of the three days preparing wood for a class that he was teaching the following weekend. It was a great experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about working wood with hand tools. Getting to know fellow woodworkers from all over the country was a real treat as well. In addition to the workshop on the main floor, there is a shop upstairs where you can buy vintage hand tools. It’s all open to the public. Anyone traveling nearby ought to stop in and look around.

Just a simple oak box made for my wife to give to a friend for Christmas.

These are two little boxes made as gifts for friends. All the wood (maple and walnut) came from the scrap bin.

My daughter, a kindergarten teacher, had an old bench that had been salvaged from a roadside trash pile. She used it for storage and seating in her classroom. It was very cheaply made – it was stapled together and the back and bottom were cardboard. It was about to fall apart, and she asked if I could repair it. I told her that I would rather make her a new one that was a little more substantial. This is the result. It is made of pine with a half-inch plywood bottom and quarter-inch plywood back. It should withstand most anything that her 5-year-old students can dish out.

I built this seven-day chest for my grandson, who was born back in November, 2010. May daughter-in-law has a similar chest that was made by her grandfather, and she thought it would be nice for her son to have one built by his grandfather. The case and drawer fronts are white oak, the panels are quarter-inch oak plywood, and the secondary wood for the drawer boxes and frames is pine. The oak was rough milled locally, and I completed the milling and sizing in my garage shop. I also milled the moldings on my router table. The finish is 4 coats of hand-rubbed polyurethane. Due to the fact that life happens even when you want to be building furniture, this project took me about 10 months to complete, but I think the wait was worth it.

This little slit drum was made from a Wood Magazine plan a few years ago as a gift for my son, a very talented drummer. It’s made from oak and padauk, and it actually has an interesting sound. although it is not tuned in any way. This was a fun project.

This is a small side table that was my first attempt at building a piece of furniture. The first shot shows it as it is now, with a few years of aging. It actually looks a little better than I thought it might. It’s obviously made of a variety of woods, at is is finished with Tung Oil.

My wife and her sister inherited their mother’s house and are doing some renovations in the kitchen. There are some exposed water pipes where a washing machine used to be, and this small cabinet will cover them. It is simple frame and panel construction. The top is removable and aligned with biscuits that are only glued to the case. That will allow access to the water fixtures in case they’re ever needed again. Although it is unfinished in these pictures, it will be painted to match the rest of the kitchen once it’s installed.

After 20 years of working on a cheap, light weight workbench that I bought at a big box store, I finally decided that I needed a bench that would stand up to heavy work. This one is built out of SYP, with a laminated MDF top. The leg vice is made of oak, and I used a quick release vice on the end of the table. The end frames are held together with pegged mortise and tenon joints. The mortises and tenons for the long stretchers are pulled tight with bench bolts, and there are two longitudinal stringers that add support under the tabletop. They are pulled tight to the end frames with lag bolts. It is a rock-solid bench, and I am really looking forward to putting it to use.

A weekend project to get a little more organized in the shop. More will be added later.

This project was made at the request of my son and future daughter-in-law for their wedding reception. It was made to receive cards and notes from guests. I built it as a “mystery box” that looks like it has no way of being opened. It makes use of what is known as a “shaker latch” of the type most often seen in secret drawers and compartments in desks and dressers. The flexible strip on the bottom of the drawer is made of padauk. When the drawer is fully closed it engages a block on the inside of the case bottom. In order to “unlock” the drawer, a pin made from a 4-penny finishing nail is inserted in a hole in the bottom of the case to push the padauk strip up far enough to disengage from the block. The block itself is removable in case they would like to use the box without “locking” it. The box is made of oak with walnut corner stiles and walnut plugs covering the four screws that secure the top.

My brother-in-law, Harold, died this year, and I made this box to hold his ashes until the family gathers to spread his ashes at his favorite place on the North Carolina coast. The box itself is constructed of old wormy pine salvaged from a building on the farm of my wife and sister-in-law’s grandparents, a place that Harold also enjoyed. The top and hinges are walnut. The hinge halves are linked with brass pins.