Iowa Cucumber Garden Bench ... reconditioned

Hello !

Made this bench in 1994 when we lived in Milwaukee.

It was one of my first projects.

I made it with hand tools in the basement garage of a townhouse we were renting.

Pine came from a 84 lumber store.

We used it as a piece of indoor furniture for a while. It matched a lamp I made.

It is painted hunter green on the bottom and was originally stained with General finishes honey maple on the top with spar varnish and paste wax.

It has spent the last ten years sitting on porches working as a place to groceries or packages next to the front door etc.. Every time it rained it would get wet, but not soaked. Surprised at how well it has held up.

Posting this project as sort-of-a blog because, rather then submitting it as an old piece, figured I’d recondition it and post a photo slide show of work in progression. I like taking photos so there are 43 in the slide show.

No nails, screws or metal fasteners were used in construction.
All walnut pegged construction … 1/4 and 3/8 dowels with Titebond glue ….
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It was called a garden cucumber bench because one could sit on it and reach down real far, even rock it , tipping it up on edge while in a garden. Good for weeding and picken’ Very strong design for big Iowa farm people. I think the design has a AMISH origin. We lived near an offshoot from the Amana colonies.

Original finish was well worn, past protecting anything.

First I sanded the dirt and crap from the top board to 80, 120 and then 180 grit making sure not to sand thru the existing patina too much.

Just for fun I applied dark golden dye on the top board and then I put a coat of jazzed up minwax mahogany oil stain all over the piece, top to bottom, inside and oustside I wet sanded the oil stain into the top with beartex and wiped everything off with red rags.

with Japanese dryer the finish dried very fast in front of a fan.

Next I used up a half-a-can of spray on SPAR varnish. Multiple coats especially on top.

When this dried I beartex’d in multiple coats of dark wax on the top board …. just for fun.

Back to the front porch ! Better then new.

slides are in progressive order ..

.. .. CLICK TO ENLARGE FOR DIMENSIONED SKETCH ..

-- work from your heart and your spirit will live forever