Just finished my latest commission. Soon to be Grandmother wanted a Slant Arm Morris Chair Rocker, to go with her other Arts and Crafts furniture. Fairly straight forward, just took the Slant arm chair that I already make and added some steam bent rockers to it. The back doesn’t adjust, like the chair does, but is set at a comfortable angle. Quarter sawn white oak. Quadrilinear construction on the legs. Mortise and tenon construction. Medium dark oak aniline dye, finished with tung oil/varnish homebrew.
Leather covered coil spring seat cushion. Back and seat are cushioned with foam wrapped in down and feathers. Very comfortable chair. Finished size is 32wx39dx40h. I may have to make one for myself someday.

Is another man’s life guard stand! I made a set of the tall bar stools for a client that had a 50” high counter. Seat height is 38”. This chair is not for the physically unable. The other chair is for a normal, 36” high counter, although made a little wider than normal, for the “wide bodies”. Both are made of quarter sawn white oak, with a oil/varnish finish. Mortise and tenon construction through out. Seats are leather covered web and foam cushions.

Well, the wife finally cornered me and demanded I make a frame for the two bamboo prints she bought 2 years ago. Varied my normal Arts and Crafts style a bit to give it more of an Asian feel. Frame is made of African Mahogany, Black Walnut and Ebony. Each print is 12” X 36” and the overall frame is 42” x 36”. Finish is tung oil and varnish. Thanks for looking.

This is another project that kept me busy this past year. I built this shadow box for one of my old Navy buddies that I used to fly with. I can’t take credit for the design, he sent me a picture of one of these boxes. I made his from African Mahogany, with a tung oil and varnish finish. This shadow box is 35” h x 25” w x 4” d. It was a fun project. A nice deviation from the normal shadow boxes that I’ve made in the past.

This is a Mission Style end table, custom made for a clients particular needs. It’s made from quarter sawn white oak. This piece was going to be place on a sun porch, so we didn’t want the finish to fade, so I ammonia fumed the piece. I followed that with tung oil, varnish and wax. It has a 4” deep drawer on wooden runners. All of those spindles is why I prefer Arts and Crafts to Mission styles. Lot of work sanding all of those pieces.

This was a fun, but time consuming project. It’s an Arts & Crafts Style table lamp, made from cherry. It has a wood frame and Mica inserts. The lamp was finished with tung oil and wax. The shade is 18” square and the lamp stands 26” tall. It has a double bulb “S” fixture in it.

It’s been quite some time since I posted on LJ’s, so I thought I’d put a couple of the projects that I’ve been working on over the last few months. This is a Craftsman Style Book case, based on the Stickley #719, but only half as wide. My client wanted two of these, rather than one big one. It’s made of quarter sawn white oak. It as through mortise and tenon joinery, shiplap back and 8 individual glass lites in each door. Finished it with an aniline dye and tung oil and varnish. This case is 36”w x 15”d x 60”h.

Well, we had to load this tonight, so I went ahead a snapped the pictures. This is basically the same construction, design and finish as the Brigadier Desk. Everything was scaled down a little, to keep the footprint the same as the desk, but still leave room for the equipment and a nice, wide pull out keyboard tray.
Check out that louver panel. Told yall about the wobble dado episode http://lumberjocks.com/tenontim/blog/10103. Ever think you’d see high end furniture made with a wobble dado. Me either. Well, whatever works.

This is another desk I just finished. Designed and built it for a retired Air Force Officer, thus the name. I used quite a bit of Asian influence in the design. The corner joinery is from Korean furniture that I’ve seen in my journeys and the stretcher is based on the Japanese torii. It still maintains some of the Arts & Crafts influence, with the through mortise and tenon joinery and bread board ends. The piece is made from riff sawn white oak and dyed with a combination of oak and dark oak aniline dye. Finish is hand rubbed oil and varnish followed by dark wax. I was amazed at how closely the color of this piece matches my Morris chair, with the ammonia fumed finish. And I didn’t have to wear a respirator to do it. I’ll try to get the pictures of the companion piece (computer desk) posted tomorrow.
Thanks for looking.

This is a desk that I just completed as part of an office suite. This is my own design, base on the Arts and Crafts style. My client doesn’t care for the bold flake pattern of Quarter Sawn white oak, so I built this from rift sawn white oak, mainly to keep the stability of straight grained lumber, without the flake. The panels are veneer over mdf, using the titebond/iron on method. Finish is oil and varnish.

I designed this piece, in the Arts and Crafts style, for our new house. This sideboard is my first project using veneer. The large side and back panels, and the door panels are veneer, glued onto mdf, using the titebond-iron on method. The veneer and the lumber used are quarter sawn white oak. I was very pleased with the results. I want to especially thank Lee Jesberger for his advise on the procedures to use to get this completed. His web site on veneering has a wealth of information. http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com/Veneering_Index.html . My wife has plans for this sideboard, but it’s going to spend the next 2 months at the Texas Furniture Makers Show, and if no one buys it, then she can fill it up.

Just finished up the new front door for my house. It’s an Arts and Crafts style, to go with the bungalow style house that I’m building. It’s made of White Ash. The rails and stiles where made from 8/4, planed down to 1 3/4” and the floating panels are 1/2” thick. It has a walnut and cherry mix stain. So far it has about 8 coats of pure tung oil. Glass is textured glass I got at a stained glass store.

Since the majority of the LumberJock’s unanimously agree that plywood from China is “JUNK”, I would like to submit my entry – a six drawer dresser made of entirely of Chinese plywood.
The legs are made of 4 pieces of wood each,joined together with home made glue made from contaminated pet food.
The case is joined together with biscuits and sheet rock screws, as are the drawers.
The drawer pulls small pieces taken from imported toys, that may be a choking hazard.
The finish is a thinned down wash, made of maple colored, lead base paint.
The entire piece was made only with imported tools, some of which broke during use and the pieces are still imbedded in the wood at various places.

This is one of four Rockers that I made for the front porch of our new house, that I started building over 2 years ago. They are a little on the large size, but so am I and I like to be comfortable when I’m relaxing. I based the design and dimensions off of an antique rocker that I had in the shop for re-caning. I just squared up the parts, the original was all turned. They’re made out of Ash and have flat reed seats, woven in a heiring bone pattern. I finished them with tung oil, tinted with a sandalwood tint, then finished with varnish. The seats have several coats of a boiled linseed oil and varnish mixture.

This is the first box I’ve made, other than storage boxes for tools. This is another one of those things you do when you do this professionally. I made this for one of my furniture customers. She has an antique thimble collection, and wanted a case to display them in. I think I’ve made full size furniture in less time than this took. I guess you box makers must have a system that I don’t know about yet.
The box is made of cherry. The case dovetails were machine cut, but the ones in the drawer I had to do by hand. It has a oil/varnish/wax finish. Measures about 18w x 10”d x 6-8”t. It has spaces for 48 thimbles and the drawer is for the history index.

This is a hall table that I built on commission. It is made of quarter sawn white ash and flat sawn white oak.
It has a bevel edge mirror. The hard ware is from Lee Valley. It is based on a Stickley design, but I added a few of my own design ideas.

This is a 4 Panel Shoji that I made several years ago. This has double sided lattice. The panel is made of rice paper. If you need practice making lap joints and mortises, this is your project. This one is made of Cherry with an oil and varnish finish. I guess I’m lucky. The lady that commissioned this normally liked to have everything made mostly of purpleheart. Each panel is 14”w x 74”h.

Cojo asked about steamboxes and here’s my version. This is a simple steam box for bending wood. I’ve built several of these. Depending on how much you use it, once they start warping and cracking, just throw it away and build another. Pine works very well, and it’s cheap. Plywood may delaminate on you. Make the box a little larger than the pieces that you think you will be steaming. It doesn’t have to be air tight, in fact you want it to leak to pressure doesn’t build up. Make a loose fitting door and a drain hole on one end and put a catch bucket under it, so you don’t stain your shop floor. Put a couple of rows of dowels through it, to set the wood on. Don’t worry about internal temperatures or any of that other rocket science that you read about steam boxes. If you have a good flow of steam coming out of the can, it’s hot enough. There are different schools of thought on how long to steam. I’ve found that 1 hour per inch of wood thickness works well. About 2” of water in this can will last almost 2 hours. If you let it go dry, you have to let it cool and start the clock over, you can’t take up where you left off. I’ve used this to steam oak, maple, walnut, purpleheart, and cedar and pine. Don’t get carried away with real sharp bends and you should have good luck with your bending.

Tried to post this on Blake’s site, but couldn’t get pictures to load. I kicked the idea around of a device like the one Blake made, but settled on the large handwheel, usually sells for about $70. I bought the parts from Grizzley. Handwheel=$6.95 and handle=$1.50, plus shipping. The photos show how to do it. I added the acorn nut on the bottom to give the original rod the height it needed to clear the top of the saw. I also added the eye bolt to keep it from swinging around to much. A quick 5 turns and it goes from 0 tension to a setting for a 3/8” blade.

This is one of my “therapy” projects I made when I first started making A & C furniture. The entire piece is made with hand tools. Fine woodworking (#173) posted my jig for holding the legs at an angle, in order to chop the mortises straight, several years ago. The table is made from quarter sawn white oak, and the drawer is made from walnut and spanish cedar. The drawer is dovetailed (of course) and all of the joinery is mortise and tenon with the exception of the lower slats which are a lap joint. I think this took about 40 hours to complete, over several week ends. The finish is linseed oil and varnish. The dark table is a partially machine made production version without a drawer and with a fumed finish. 3rd picture is a comparison of the walnut next to the fumed white oak.