Live edge walnut picture frame

This is probably the most “traditional” piece of woodworking I’ve ever done: no mechanical fasteners, no mixed materials, just wood. Wood wood wood.

A friend of mine gave me a nice piece of live edge walnut a while ago. It was thin (maybe 3/4”) and warped and twisted and kind of a mess, so I put it up on the lumber rack and forgot about it for a while. A few months later, I picked up a jointer and started to think about that piece of wood again. A while after that, I was in New York while Jimmy DiResta made a giant live-edge chalkboard, and I remembered the chunk of walnut I had sitting at home.

First I cut a section from the board and ripped it down the middle with my little 4” circular saw. I didn’t worry too much about getting the cut perfectly straight, because I HAVE A JOINTER NOW. Yeah. Here it is after jointing.

I usually cut miters on the table saw, but I thought I’d try using the miter saw for once.

It came together pretty nicely. I added internal splines using some cherry scraps I had around, but the frame was still missing something. I know! BUTTERFLY.

After that, I chiseled off the edges to make them meet properly and planed down some of the unevenness. Lots of hand tool work in this project, especially for me (I’m not usually a hand tool guy). It was fun.

I finished the frame with boiled linseed oil and Arm-R-Seal. This was my first time using a General Finishes product, and it was great—except I could NOT get the can open to save my life. So I poked a hole in the top instead and covered it with a nitrile glove when I was finished to prevent it from drying out.

If you want to see the entire project, start to finish, I made a YouTube video: Live Edge Walnut Picture Frame. It’s less than four minutes long, so have a look.

Thanks!

-- Bill Livolsi, Owner, One Car Workshop -- http://onecarworkshop.com