Here is a puzzle which never fails to mystify viewers. The block containing a nail is a single piece of wood which has not been broken and re-glued, nor is there a plug to fill a hole in either end. The wood was not steamed, nor did I use a chemical to soften the wood and make it bend. The nail is a hardened cement nail which would be virtually impossible to cut or bend, and I did neither. Like most puzzles, the solution is fairly simple, but I won't disclose the secret. In spite of the last sentence I get a lot of emails requesting the solution. This is the only thing on my website that I won't discuss and it would be a waste of time to ask.
I
built a 6-piece wall unit and chest of drawers for the guest
room. The chest of drawers is solid
walnut with several coats of Danish Oil finish followed by 3
coats of wiping varnish. The sides of
the chest contain raised panels, and a small jewelry
chest sits on top. The drawers are machine dovetailed
Baltic Birch.
The 6-piece wall unit is made from maple with walnut cabinet tops and shelves. The lower shelves in each unit are fixed in location, but the top two shelves are adjustable. The 3 base cabinets and 3 shelf units have been connected to form a wall grouping. The drawers are also Baltic Birch. My wife uses this room for her personal office space, so the center lower cabinet is a desk unit. The maple used in the base cabinets displays a very curious optical property -- when the grain is horizontal the color is a normal blond color, but when the grain is vertical the color takes on a slight orange tint, although not nearly as pronounced as in the photos. Here is a photo of the same drawer front in both orientations. The maple in the shelf units came from a different source and does not exhibit this color shift and the finish is the same as in the base units.
I have remodeled my home 3 times and one of the more ambitious projects involved making kitchen cabinets and a pantry unit. These were made from walnut. There were a total of 42 doors and 20 drawers used to construct the cabinets. I recently added some plate shelves and a gallery rail shelf over the wall which opens to the family room. I also made vanities for three bathrooms, plus a couple of storage cabinets.
My wife asked me to assemble and finish a kitchen table and two chairs that were purchased in kit form. The butcher block table and the chairs were made of Western Red Alder which were stained using Bartley gel stain and finished with many coats of polyurethane which was thinned to make a wiping varnish. The final coat was rubbed out to a satin finish. The base of the table and chairs were painted to match our almond appliances.
Here is a knife rack that I made from laminated black walnut to match the cabinets. There are two sets of holes drilled in the side of the rack for ceramic honing rods, one set for the primary bevel angle and another set for the secondary bevel. A banana tree was made from a scrap of dark Koa which matches the walnut cabinets very closely. My wife asked me to make a coffee mug rack with a larger base and shorter post than the old one we have used for years. It was turned from walnut.
Our dining room furniture is made of pecan and of a fairly modern design. I designed and built a pecan grandfather clock to match the other pieces. This required using a square clock face to match the lines of the china cabinet.
I made a walnut plant stand to fill an unused corner next to the living room fireplace. The first and third shelves are glass, which allows each grow light to illuminate two shelves.
Here is a small box made of walnut and birds eye maple with hand rubbed tung oil and varnish mixture.
One Christmas I made weather stations for my relatives. I made an extra for our family room.
A recent query on "rec.woodworking" prompted me to take a shot of a classic style cribbage board I made years ago. There are 6 segments of 5 holes or 30 holes down the outside and the same back the inside (for each player). Two trips plus one to peg out equals 121 points. The small segment on the right side of the photo contain the two starter holes, and the center contains two segments of 5 (10 holes) at each end to help keep score. Board is made from Rosewood with Pecan divider strips.
I remodeled my basement game room to resemble an English pub. I used dark 1/2" prefinished paneling and stained rough cut cedar to capture the Tudor style tavern look. There is a wood burning fireplace at one end of the room, and I built a wet bar and wine storage area at the other end. The front bar has an 8 foot slab of Colorado Yule marble from an old ice cream fountain. The back bar uses milk glass cabinet doors and the mirror from this same fountain. Since the room is large, we chose a furniture style that was fairly massive. This furniture style is often called "orange crate" furniture and is very simple in design and is often made of construction grade 2x4's and shredded foam cushions. I used light weight fir timbers to construct the frames of the chairs and sofa, but wrapped the frame with oak. The sofa contains a fold out double bed unit which I purchased from a local company which builds sofa beds. I had cushions made to fit the sofa and chairs. The 3 parson tables were built from 5/4 oak and oak parquet flooring on the tops.
Some of my projects have been furniture repair and refinishing. Years ago I found this old Victrola at a neighborhood garage sale for $25. The interior was in good shape, but the top required new veneer and the cabinet needed to be refinished. This unit was built in 1913. Everything works great!
When my daughter was a teen, I made her bedroom furniture in a modular design called Campaign furniture. This style is characterized by its use of "L" and "T" shaped antiqued brass corner brackets. When she married, she took these modules and they are still used throughout their home. There were 8 stackable modules of identical size, plus a makeup vanity and mirror, and three base units. The base units were a simple rectangular frame to provide toe space at the bottom of a stack but she doesn't use these today. There were 2 book shelf modules, 2 open faced cabinet modules, 2 drawer modules, and 2 modules with cabinet doors. These were made from plywood sheets imported from the Philippine Islands. The interior plys were Lauan (Philippine Mahogany) and the two veneer faces were dark brown Hawaiian Koa with incredible figure and depth. The 6 sheets required for this project were serial numbered and contained sequentially cut veneer of almost identical figure. Since the Koa was dark, I used walnut for the edge banding. Update, December 2002: My daughter pointed out that she had moved some of the modules and made a study center for the grand-daughters. 6 of the modules ended up in the new setting. Update, August 2003: At a recent birthday party for the grand-kids I noticed that the modules had been moved into two of the kid's bedrooms -- this design is indeed versatile.
When my daughter and husband were expecting their first child I made them a cradle based on the popular Woodsmith #48 pattern. She insisted on knotty pine, which would not have been my first choice. I made a similar cradle for my son and his wife for their first child. I made this from cherry. These are scans from snapshots; please excuse the photo quality.
I made a toy box for my daughter's children. It was made from white oak and is very heavy, so I used 3 spring loaded counter balance units to make the top lift easily and close slowly. The design is basically that of a blanket chest, and I expect that it will be used for that purpose someday.
I made some Christmas Log decorations from a Weeping Birch tree removed from my front yard. While sorting through the pile I found a section of log with characteristic black stains on the end. This became the Spalted Birch vase shown on my Woodturning page.
I purchased my first personal computer in the late 70's. It was an Imsai S-100 bus system. Since then I have lost count of the number of PC's or upgrades that I have acquired. The one constant, however, is the need for a computer desk. I found that two trestle tables which form a "L" shaped computer desk provide the most versatile solution.
One of my very first projects was to build some living room furniture. This was in the mid 60's and a popular furniture style of the day was Mediterranean. My design was copied after some pieces we saw and liked. A square reading table and two hexagonal sofa end tables are still in use today. I built an elaborate stereo cabinet in the same style, but dismantled it a few years ago when we remodeled that portion of the house and opened up a wall to make my study accessible from the living room. I found an old snapshot which shows the basic look of the stereo cabinet. There were four doors on the front, the two on the ends opened to expose the speakers, and the center two doors opened to allow access to the flush mounted amplifier and tuner. The center panel in the top could be lifted to expose a tape deck and turntable. I kept the four doors and look at them from time to time and try to imagine what I can make with them.
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