This is the latest project that I have finished. My wife wanted a place to seat to remove and put on your shoes by the front door. She always wanted a place to put the shoes (now we need to teach the kids to put their shoes away). This is the design that I came up with. The wood that was used in this project is Oregon black walnut and maple. The finish is shellac, wipe on poly, and a coat of wax.

There were many first for me on this project.
- Hand plane the seat flat and to final thickness. That was a lot of work.
- Power carving the seat with the Arbortech wood carver. That was lots of fun, but it is messy!
- Resawing the lumber to make the bookmark panels for the shoe rack box.
- Box joints on the shoe rack box. I really like the look of this joint, but it was nerve racking to glue up. I’m glad my wife was there to help during that glueup!

Let me know what you think and all comments and critiques are welcomed

Here are a couple of pens that I made over the weekend. The wood used for the pen and pencil set is Buckeye Burl and the other pen is made out of Purpleheart.

This is the first piece of furniture that I have made, since high school. I made the toddler bed for my two year old son. The wood is walnut and the finish is 3 or 4 coats of a simple wipe-on poly.

I made this bed, while we still lived in Cincinnati, OH. This bed was made while I was taking a woodworking course at the local tech school, Great Oaks through their “Adult and Continuing Education” program. It was a great class and the instructor was very helpful. I would recommend this class to anyone in the greater Cincinnati area who doesn’t have access to a shop or anyone who is new to woodworking or needs a refresher course.