Almost Déjà vu

About 11 years ago, I got side tracked and started making Post Office lock box door banks.  I made up about 15 of them, gave one to each one of my kids, a few friends, and set the rest on a shelf in the basement and forgot about them.  A few years later, my wife gave one to a nephew, with a little money in it, and precedence was set.  Now all the nephews and nieces expect one of these coin banks when they graduate.

My wife mentioned the other day that we were down to two boxes and still have seven nieces/nephews to graduate.  The next one doesn’t graduate for another four years, but I prefer to be proactive.  The original boxes from way back were built using red oak and walnut with a few using cherry and walnut.  This time around I opted for white oak and walnut.  I had 6 Grecian doors from the 50s and 60s sitting in a cabinet, so I went ahead and ran a batch off.

This is the first time I have used white oak in any project and I really like how it looks.  It doesn’t have the reddish hue of red oak, but more of an antique look when finished with the oil-based clear finish that I use on all my projects.  I never use stains on my projects and let the natural color and figure of the wood stand on its own.  What makes these boxes a little unique is the dovetail joinery.  Most woodworkers who make these coin banks use 45 degree miter edges to join the corners which is quick and easy.  Not being the person who takes the low road, I prefer to spend more time and dovetail them.  The results are much more dramatic.

My plan right now is to add these as a new product for my shows.  Unfortunately, the six I finished yesterday have already been sold through the power of customer email notifications.  I have a show in a couple of weeks, so I’ve got to get moving to get more ready.

The custom engraved coin slot really makes this box.

It takes a big mallet and a lot of clamps to get the dovetails together and glued.

Too Pretty For Anything Else

By looking at my products, one will deduce that I like to mix different woods to make each piece interesting and eye catching.  However, every once in a while I get a hold of a piece of wood that beckons to stand on its own without any further help from me.  Such is the case of my recent lazy susans.

Since I buy my lumber rough as it comes from the saw mill, it is sometimes difficult to see what the wood actually looks like until I run it through my planer.  I had some walnut that I planed down with the intention of using it for another project.  But, when it came out of the planer, I just couldn’t bear to cut it up into small strips.  The creamy sapwood streaks mixed in with light chocolate heartwood was too pretty to use for anything other than a lazy susan.  It worked out so that I could make a 13” and a 16” with matching walnut bases.

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Church Pew Lazy Susans

When I was in Tennessee a few weeks ago, my dad gave me an old church pew that was removed from his church.  It was destined for the dump and would be there right now had he not rescued it.  This pew was installed in the church in 1964 when they built the new sanctuary.  I was 8 years old when it was built and listened to many sermons over the years sitting on these solid red oak pews.  It just didn’t seem right to let it go to the dump or be cut it up for firewood.

I decided to do the “green” thing, reclaim the wood, and turn it into lazy susans.  This involved cutting around the holes (where the book holders were screwed on) and all the staples that held on the upholstery.   I ended up with 5” wide strips that I ran through the planer to remove the old finish and dents.  I then glued the strips back up and cut the circles out on my bandsaw.  The whole time I was milling the wood, I was wondering if any of the chewing gum under the seat bottoms belong to me from the 60s.

The result was three 16” lazy susans and still enough wood for maybe a couple 12” ones.  I also couldn’t resist making up some bookmarks out of the oak.  Upon first glance, these are a little uninspiring, but the history and story behind them is what it’s all about.  I figured out the other day that excluding revivals, these lazy susans have bore witness to over 6600 Southern Baptist sermons and should be full of the Holy Spirit.

Church Pew Red Oak

Church Pew Bookmark With Walnut Trim

It's all about the sanding

Buckhead, Here We Come!

The Buckhead Spring Festival is this weekend!!  It would be hard to find a better location in Atlanta to have a show.  This is the first year for this show so hopefully we will have a good turnout.  The promoter has done a great job with advertising, and since the show is in Chastain Park, anticipation is high.  They’re calling for isolated thunderstorms Saturday, but I’m not too concerned about it considering the accuracy of our local weather forecasters.  It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s nice all weekend.

I sold a large portion of my dipping board inventory at my last show, so I have been working on getting the numbers back up.  This is the last batch that is in the process of drying and should be ready to pack up in another day.

Never Bored

The thing I like about woodworking is the variety of challenges and projects I constantly run into.  I don’t think a woodworker ever quits learning something new every day.  We agonize over design, proportions, math, and chemistry.  We expose ourselves to harmful dust, sharp spinning blades, and hours standing on concrete floors.  But, we keep coming back each day with the desire to gain a sense of accomplishment.  We don’t get bored because there is always a project on our list or in the back of our mind.

My recently completed project is a knife display case for my brother-in-law.   He is a serious knife collector and was complaining that even though there are many display cases available, there are few high quality ones.  Most pocket knife cases hold the knife in the case with a tie wrap so it is not easy to remove the knife.  He wanted to be able to pick his knives out of the case to handle and show them off.

This case is made out of red oak and is 24” tall, 18” wide, and 4” deep.  The shelves are adjustable and have captive pins to keep the shelves from accidentally falling out.  Every knife case I looked at used a wood frame door with glass.  To be different, I used a ¼” frameless tempered glass door with the magnetic push to open/close latch.  I think it looks cleaner and allows a full view of the contents.  Instead of picture hangers on the back, I used mating cleats cut at 45 degree angles to provide a very strong wall mount system.  This case is very heavy at 20 pounds empty.  The cleat system is similar to how kitchen cabinets are mounted to the wall.  A dado was cut into the top of each shelf so that the felt sits flush instead of on top of the shelf for a cleaner look.  Overall, this thing came out very nice for my first one.

The glass door is so clean that it’s hard to tell it’s there.

Base detail

Shelf pin details

My one little knife sitting on the shelf