Fresh

Black & Red Cabinet

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 08:54:02 -0700

Designed to be a night stand or a living room side table, this piece is complex and subtle at the same time. Throughout the design and construction, more complex methods were used to give the piece a presence and depth that may only be felt and not easily seen.

The basic box is solid walnut, flattened and edge jointed with only hand planes. Dovetails were used to assemble the box. These don’t show unless you are really looking for them. In addition, the door was hand planed then hand carved to provide a wonderful shimmer in the light. (This does not show very well in photos.) The box was then ebonized (not stained) several times to achieve the black in the wood. The door is attached with straight knife hinges and a coordinating hand shaped brass pull for a subtle elegance.

Supporting a ½” thick glass top, the legs are hand shaped sapele. I chemically treated (again, not stained) the legs to give them a rich red mahogany appearance.

Rather than any sort of fixed shelf inside the cabinet I opted to make another small dovetail box that could moved to anywhere it was needed. This box is made of sycamore with a simple wax finish.

More photos in Stash.

Round Bottom Bench Plane

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 08:15:32 -0700

Looking toward the future (this fall), I will be needing a bench plane to handle an upcoming curved piece of furniture. The body of the plane is ash (yes, more left over from the Sundial Table). Walnut makes up the sole of the plane which is shaped at a 7½” radius to match the blade. The wedge and cross brace are santos mahogany, and the adjusting point is purpleheart. The blade and chip breaker are made by Hock Tools.

Dimensions of the plane are 8¾” long by 2½” wide and 2¼” tall.

Sabre Leg Stool

Fri, 9 Apr 2010 22:35:46 -0700

So, I guess we didn’t look busy enough for term two at NWS so we got assigned this little exercise. This is a sabre leg foot stool designed by Gary Rogowski at Northwest Woodworking Studio. Mine is made from ash (I had a lot left over from the Sundial Table). The grain was filled with a green tinted filler and several coats of green tinted shellac were applied. This, combined with the orange upholstery makes it look as if it would be right at home in a Dr. Seuss story.

Dovetail Box

Fri, 2 Apr 2010 13:29:48 -0700

The only requirements I was given for this piece were that it was to be a box, of any size, with hand cut dovetails, and a hinged lid. I guess I’m not one to leave things simple. I ended up with a dovetail box inside a dovetail box where the lid opens when you pull out the inner box. Press play below to see what I mean.

The outer box is mahogany, the inner box is alder, the lid is mahogany with a alder panel. All of the joinery on the boxes are hand cut dovetails, the lid panel has a hand carved texture and the pull on the front is hand shaped.

More pictures in Else.

Sundial Table

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:22:59 -0700

This console table was inspired by a trip to the Santiago Calatrava-designed Sundial Bridge in Redding California. It is a simple looking, but rather complex piece.

Standing 50” tall, the central tower consists of three pieces of 3” thick ash joined together. The curves were rough cut on a band saw and final shaping was done by hand.

The curved “feet” on the base are two 14.56” radius bent laminations which were no small task to create. A two part bending form had to be constructed, then with a lot of glue and a few thousand pounds of clamping pressure, strips of ash were formed into curves.

Five planks of ash were carefully joined together for the table top so the figuring in the wood would enhance the design and motion of the table.
The top can be removed by taking out the small 3form insert, detaching the steel cable, and sliding the top out of the groove in the tower.

More pictures in Stay.