I thought I would post some photos of my just completed Brese 650 Smoother. I usually don’t go in for excess with my tools and fixtures. I’m the guy with mis-matched doors on mdf shop cabinets. When I saw the great work done by Ron Brese I wanted to try and do it justice.

The infill is ebony. The plane is inlaid with abalone, white, pink, and gold mother of pearl, and brass.

I included some photos of the build, and am happy to expand on the process or answer questions if desired.

And the best part, some .001 shavings from gnarly cherry. The plane cut perfectly regardless of grain direction.

Thanks for the great work Ron, I’m already saving for another one of your planes.

Just finished a set of 6 chairs. They are from a Fine Woodworking article, I also ordered the plans with full size templates to make construction easier. The design is similar to the original Stickley piece, but the back has more detail.

I built the chairs from QS White Oak. After planing, stock was run through the drum sander. After that, a few swipes with a low angle jack plane, then a smoother gave me a surface ready for finish. Curved pieces were cleaned up with a spoke shave to remove band saw marks, then finished with a card scraper. Joints are all mortise and tenon with ebony plugs at the crest rails.

The slats for the back, as well at the rails were stained and sealed with shellac before assembly. I used Rockler’s Arts & Crafts Cherry stain, then sealed it with 3 coats of 2# cut garnet shellac. I applied one coat before assembly, the sprayed 2 coats. After wet sanding with 400 grit, I applied 2 coats of Minwax wipe on poly. Some dining guests may spill wine, and shellac does poorly with alcohol. I then wet sanded with 400 grit, then to red Scotch Brite. The chairs were finished with Renaissance Paste wak applied with 4/0 steel wool.

Construction of the chairs were helped greatly by the use of an STS slot mortiser, review here http://lumberjocks.com/reviews/604 Now it’s on to the table!

I recently attended an Advanced Greene & Greene Inlay class at WN Woodworks in Southern California. We did designs from actual G&G pieces, as well as projects or ideas of our own. One of the great things about William Ng and the staff, is they do all the setup and support work. All we had to do was learn inlay. They prepped background blanks, cut inlay stock, and made sure we had the correct supplies ready.

William and I are both engineers, (insert joke here). He looks at things from all different angles, and this class produced training that was the culmination of years of research. When we learned a technique, you knew that all other methods were tried, and this was the most effective process. What this did was releive me from months of trial and error to figure out the best methods of work. Maybe it’s an engineer thing, but I like the shortest way home.

Designs were drawn, then pieces were then cut from chosen materials. The puzzle pieces were then glued together, and traced on the background. Using a flexible shaft router base designed by William, we routed the background, and glued in the pieces. It was then sanded flush, or textured.

The class taught me what I need to know. Now all I need to do is practice, and apply the training to a table I’m building. I highly recommend the class. The staff and facilities are first rate, and William gets some great guest instructors too.

I built these for my wifes medical office. The woods used are Cherry, shop sawn rosewood veneer, mesquite and commercial maple veneer. Some details are:

Tapered legs from Cherry turning blanks, the coffee tables are 3 degrees of taper, the sofa table is 2 degrees. This gave the legs the same dimension at the floor.

Tops are double stacked 3/4 mdf. The cherry edge is stacked and routed for a rosewood insert. People think it is a nice detail, I needed something to hide the glue joint.

The mesquite stretchers have a rosewood detail I stack glued and contoured to fit.

I have received a lot of inspiration from the group, I need to post some photos of my New Fangled Work Bench. Many of you Lumber Jocks helped me with its construction, as well as this table.