Now that my Windsor chair is done, I have bonus time to work on extracurricular woodworking and carving projects at Greg’s. Right now I’m in the midst of a Peter Galbert-style sawhorse with ratcheting head. Oh boy, this is a treat. But more on that later, since I have nothing to show just yet.
Above is a spoon I carved a few weeks back. It’s one of a handful I carved in the last month, and my favorite spoon so far. I have plans to continue making more, and my new shaving horse will be extremely useful once I get back home to continue the carving work.
I was asked to build a set of shelves, and this is what I came up with. Greg gave me the idea of doing tenons through the side pieces, which took some extra work, but it was great practice for making tenons on a small scale. I realized I definitely can’t strike the chisels through the wood like a brute as if I were making a joint in a big timber.
I chose a piece of live edge cherry with a subtle sweep for the top piece for some bonus flair. I really like wood that is still… well, like it’s not too far from the original tree.
It’s been good practice using power planers, table saws, jointers, etc… none of which I own, or even really have access to at home. I hope it doesn’t spoil me.
I like how these shelves came out, and I imagine copying this design for the inevitable future shelves I will be building in the future. Next time I’ll know a few more things to approach differently.
Other than that, I’ve got myself some bowl carving tools on the way, which I am very excited about putting to use. I’m kinda sad winter is at its peak, because I’d love another three months to spend tooling around and making little projects without a care in the world… and spring chores still far away…
I’ve been following your blog for some time, since before you finished your first cob house… and apart from being interested in “green” building, my #1 hobby is wood working. Most of the blogs that I follow online are written by woodworkers. And I’m far more interested in working with (mostly) hand tools. So it’s been a surprise, and a pleasure, to see your blog suddenly (temporarily?) morph into being mostly about woodworking. It seemed like a natural progression, from cob & strawbale to timber framing and laying reclaimed subfloor. I didn’t think much of it. But then suddenly you were building a Windsor chair with hand tools and talking about building a shave horse!
But mostly I wanted to say that those shelves look very nice. Personally I’m not as much of a fan of knotty wood, or of leaving the live edges and bark on the lumber. But everybody’s taste is different. The finish you put on it looks great. And I’m impressed that you not only fit the shelves into dadoes, but used four wedged through tenons on each shelves. Those things are absolutely built to last and that’s the best kind of furniture of all. Something that was made in a way that says the maker really cared.
Keep up the good work on all fronts :0)
Joel in Ohio
Joel: Your words are extremely kind, and I love getting comments like this because it gives me the inspiration to keep working and writing about my projects. So big thanks for that!
As for the new increase in talk about woodworking — this blog is definitely a reflection of how my interests grow and change. I’ve appreciated woodworking and carving, but rarely have taken the time to do much of it in the past. But given my current (free) time and place, and receiving a lot of inspiration and fantastic instruction from Greg here in TN, I’ve been allowed to really delve in much deeper. I really love it.
I hope it becomes a regular feature of my writing and the blog as I continue to do more projects. Anything up until this point didn’t feel very worthy of detailing, but the chairmaking, shelves, and carving projects are much more of a concerted effort. I’m excited to bring my soon-to-be completed shaving horse home and finally have a decent piece of equipment to do projects.