Poplar Plugs & Tusks in Walnut

A good friend wanted a gift for his brother whom he just stayed with for a visit. He suggested using traditional joinery because the brother is into woodworking. I find miters to be much easier than mortise and tenons.

It seems I am always getting something out of square or to big or too small.

Well, I may take some time soon to practice cutting M&T’s. I use a drill press to remove the waste from the mortises, but is seems to have run out, both in its depth stop and in its radius.

Thank goodness walnut is so good at being cleaved. That made the drilling and chiselling of the rabbets pretty easy.

The plugs were strait foward and fun, but I realized I didn’t have a small enough chisel for the tusks too late. So I drilled the tusks holes and just sanded down a dowel for them.

Any advice?

By the way, the walnut came from a tree which my wife’s truck rolled into years ago. We still have the Ford Ranger, and it has over 300k!

The last two pictures show the backing with a requested note & card.

-- I came, I was conquered, I was born again. ἵνα ὦσιν ἓν