This is a pen set that I made for a couple I recently married. They brought me a piece of Apple from the couple’s property that had been cut and dried. I hand-split the wood and the pens were made from each side of the mirror split at the place of the heaviest curl.

What a great example for marriage: two halves, complementing each other and making a whole. And the extensive curl is from a place in the life of the tree that could have either been very destructive or a life-long strength. The same is true of the struggles we all face in marriage.

A great reminder to them both—“The two shall become one… for better for worse….”

This particular pen was sanded in progressively finer grits—to 800 grit. Five coats of finish were applied and then sanded smooth to the wood—to fill the grain and provide a durable base. At least 10 additional coats of CA were added to the final product—which was buffed and polished.

The couple was absolutely tickled with the gift. (The maid-of-honor was, too. She visited my Etsy Store on Friday night and bought 2 of my other pens on Saturday before the wedding.)

Here are some more of my pens. I’ve posted them because of the amazing figure in the grain.

Pen 1 – curly maple stained purple
Pen 2 – curly maple with a curly walnut band
Pen 3 – oak burl

The oak is NOT artificially stained by me. It came that way from the tree. It was located near the bark and has some of the most amazing color I’ve ever seen.

Thanks for looking!

Also, my Esty store is proving to be a good idea. First sale was to British Columbia.

I recently was given an old lathe at a VERY good price. Before the lathe was even here, I picked up the hardware necessary to try my hand at making some pens. I made one pen the first day the lathe was set up. When I brought the first pen in the house, the whole family was hooked. I made these two pens the next day. My 12 year old—who has never used a lathe in his life—made a pen blank out of Padauk (that’s not pictured, yet). He’s crunching numbers and is trying to figure out how many pens he can make for his teachers and friends.

These are actually Pens #2 and #3. Pen #1 was already given to the very gracious man who lets me dig through his firewood pile, where I find scraps that I can turn (get it, “turn”—like on a lathe!!!) into something nice.

The top pen is made from a briar burl pipe blank I bought from Manny’s Woodshop in Lexington, Kentucky when we lived in the Bluegrass. It’s been kicking around for a while, so I decided to make something I could enjoy. The rest of the pieces from that I’ll use to accent another pen, another time.

The bottom pen is made with curly maple that I rescued from the firewood pile. This is nearly identical to the first one I made that I already gave away.

Both pens sanded and polished up through 800 grit. I quickly realized that I’ve just scratched the surface. (Now you’ve got to admit, that’s just down right funny!) Both were finished with turner’s finish. The maple was also polished with a little wax.

I’m enough of a perfectionist that I already know getting a good finish is going to be my challenge and focus. so let the learning begin (again). If you have any advice on pen making, post here and I’ll check out your projects and posts.

And if you know of a pen-turners support group (like AA), keep that handy, too. I might need it before long.

Thanks for looking!

When I first got into woodworking I didn’t have the money to buy a mallet (sad, I know). So I made one out of maple that has served me well. But I always wanted one like this.

Fast forward several years and Popular Woodworking started the buzz on this Mystery Mallet by Roy Underhill. When I got the April 2012 issue of Popular Woodworking, I immediately got to work on the mallet.

The entire thing is made out of Ash – which should help it last a good long time. I stained the head of the mallet with some dark something I had laying around. The entire thing has several coats of tung oil.

The blog is listed here: http://lumberjocks.com/pastorglen/blog/28617 It will give some of what I learned along the way.

Thanks for stopping in and taking a look.

This past year my family finally understood what the Bungalow/Arts & Craft styles are all about. So little by little we’ve been working to return design elements back to our house style. Design elements of this can be seen in most of the projects I’ve posted here.

This mirror project was on my “to do list” to nudge our home re-design forward.

We had an existing mirror with a white wicker frame—it was ugly and didn’t match anything in our house. So I reclaimed the mirror, burned the other ugly frame, and built this to replace it. It’s simple, but it really adds another component to our bedroom that is making it feel more like a “suite” rather than eclectic hand-me-downs.

I added a few little details just for variety.

I needed one more gift for my lovely bride this Christmas, and this little project was just the ticket. It turned out to be her favorite!

My bride loves making necklaces and had asked me if I could make her a simple hanger to get them off the dresser. What she described was nothing more than a 1×4 with nails driven in it. (Not quite, but I think she described it that way knowing that I would quickly rise to the occasion and say, “I can do it better than that!” I guess she knows me pretty well.)

So while cleaning up my scrap pile from my bed project, I came across these two pieces that were too short for my next project and too long to donate to my son’s camp fire pile.

I basically squared them up and cut them as long as possible. I kept the design really simple and picked up a few boxes of cup hanger hooks (less than $6). I used my hand plane to dress up the edges, and I used my hand drill to pre-drill the holes for the hooks. About a nickel’s worth of Glue and three Kreg screws in the back and the whole thing was nearly finished.

Minwax English Chestnut stain (stain, hand sand, and re-stain), and sprayed semi-gloss polyurethane finish. It took a couple of day from start to finish—most of that time was letting the finish dry.

I know, I know. The project is very simple and it sort of looks like something a high school student would have done, but my wife doesn’t care. She is tickled that I took the time and used some of my wood and finish to do a project for her.

Look through your scrap pile and see if there is a special project for a special someone just waiting to be built. It will be time well spent.

This bed project was a “first” for me on several fronts:

• This is my first Kreg Jig project (nothing like jumping right in)
• This is my largest design project
• This is my first drawer project—12 to be exact!
• These drawer fronts were made on the table saw with a cool jig I whipped up

One of the pictures shows that it’s built in parts. The platform is built in three sections. Both sides (17” H x 24” D X 81” L) are identical but opposites (if that makes sense). At the head of the platform is an opening with a door. The rest of the platform has six drawers, for a total of 12 drawers.

The drawer fronts were made on the table saw with a jig that slides over the fence. I’m sure most of you have already done this same thing, but I learned how to do it on this project—and still have all my fingers. It’s all good.

Since this is a queen-sized bed, the spacer in the middle is currently about 13” wide and really just keeps the two side cabinets spaced and in place. I hope to build an additional unit there with one drawer that slides out at the foot of the bed. Even though it’s currently dead space, it’s not really needed at this time. The great thing about the spacer is that it can be increased or decreased as needed. For example, if we ever expand to a king sized bed, I would simply make an enlarged spacer. If we went to a full size bed, I’d make a smaller spacer. Actually, it can even be reduced to two twin sized beds with just a little modification.

The head board is alternating oak boards and oak plywood. The plywood is stepped back 1/4”, which gives it the Arts & Craft look I was aiming for.

This was a GREAT learning project, and I’m already planning a few other pieces for the bedroom to complete the set.

I had a customer (my 7 year old daughter) request a bed for her doll. Although she’s a non-paying client, it’s been a great project in the making.

I used stairway spindles for the corner posts, and then cut them down to a height recommended by my shop assistant (my 10 year old son and older brother of the client). He also helped me get the proportions of the bed by measuring his bed and scaling it down. (This was a great exercise in helping him understand the usefulness of fractions.)

The headboard has a gentle curve that allowed me to use the full width of the board. Everything is hand-cut mortise and tenon joinery. Gluing everything was a challenge as there wasn’t a bunch of wiggle room. The strength of it all was tested when I stood on the side rails and nothing broke (or fell).

The greatest part, though, was taking my daughter to the hardware store to pick out paint. We were matching this avocado color (my grandmother would be so proud) that was in a picture my daughter liked, and so we went through a dozen options before she settled on this.

If you ever get the chance to do a project for and with your kids, it add the icing on the cake to your craft.

I was looking to upgrade to a better dovetail saw, but I didn’t want to spend a boat-load. So I decided to build it.

Side note—think about it. There isn’t a project we build that we couldn’t buy somewhere. Part of the reason we build it is to have joy and satisfaction from using our hands to make something that will last to the next generations. We should have the same approach—when possible—to the tools we use.

I read the Norse Woodsmith blog on making backsaws so many times that I thought I had it memorized. Then, after looking at a variety of options, I ended up getting in touch with Wenzloff & Sons. They have kits, but they also let you build it to your specs from scratch. My kids gave me $50 toward the saw for Christmas, and I added the cost of shipping. I ordered two split-nut screws, a folded brass back, and a .020” blade, with the teeth already cut, but not sharpened. I made my own handle (which is pictured in my icon thingy) from a piece of scrap wood with some extra nice figure in it.

The whole thing cost under $60, and I am absolutely delighted with the results. Wenzloff & Sons were a delight to work with and very helpful. I plan to buy another one this week and make tenon saw.

In the process I’ve learned how the saws are made, how to adjust them, and how to sharpen them. It was a great project that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in having a great saw for a fraction of the cost.