Serving Tray in Beech and 'Leather'

What perfect timing on this!

I’ve been working on these trays for several months and the summer awards came along just in time to get me to finish. I meet with Sawdust2 (Lee) and a few other wooodoworkers in Lee’s shop for a weekly chat session with occasional woodworking thrown in. Out of the group, Lee and I were the only ones who finished ours so far – but I’m sure we’ve got some other great ones coming along soon.

The main wood is European Beech, not a wood I’d worked with before so that was nice. I used a Cherry veneer for the tray bottoms. The project originally called for cork for the inside but I wanted something a little nicer. I couldn’t find the leather I wanted, at least not at a price I wanted to pay, so I went with vinyl for the inside in a brown leather pattern – it worked out well. I wasn’t sure how to attach the ‘leather’ to the tray so Lee suggestd I consult another Lumberjock known for some great leather work, Thos. Angle, he’s normally real active on the board but he’s been absent for a couple months as Karson mentioned in another post. He suggested contact cement and that worked great, although I did manage to glue quite a few things together other than my intended targets – like my hand to the table, my stir stick to my arm… oh well.

Anyhow… after some sweat, coffee, politics, religion and more coffee I did manage to complete the tray. This one is part of a set of 4 that will nest together, I’m still finishing the others but wanted to get one in for the summer contest.

Thanks Lee and all the Sawdust group for the help, the shop space, the conversation and the projects! Not to mention thanks to all the LJ’s that have answered my questions on woodworking.

Tim

-- Tim D. - Woodstock, GA