Mirror and drawer

My very first project using joinery (and not screws as in a garden swing and some other stuff I had made before this): The mirror in walnut. The plan was to make the sides of different widths, each with the golden ratio to the next. Lesson learned – when you saw the wood, it can start bending quite a bit, so I aborted the exact ratio and squared my lumber again and continued. Mortice and tenons.

The drawer follows the same theme, with maple as the secondary wood. Lessons learned – the dovetails should not go this way as there is no mechanical grip. There was an other more painful lesson – do not rout the half blind dovetails on the opposing sides of the only piece of walnut you have left. After that mistake, I printed a page from old FWW with the headline “Expect to make mistakes”, to remind myself that this is a hobby and supposed to be fun, and not to agitate me.

Finish is danish oil for both. I sanded (and sanded) the surface, last round with a pad of some sort with 1500 grit. I dont know whether it was adding anything, but at least it felt smooth.

And yes, I used jigs and a router rather than hand tools for the joinery. My excuse is that my only training is from podcasts and tool manufacturer’s dvd’s, and as a father of two and a full time job, I only have so much time in my very small shop. Those precious minutes need to count… maybe someday my skills improve so much that I become productive with hand tools as well.