Well, I figured that since raising my daughter has kept me out of the shop of late, I thought I would give you guys a look at a project I have been working off and on for the past 4 years. It’s called the
“King of Desks”

It’s been a dream of mind to make my masterpiece. I decided that it would be my own version of a Wooten Patent Desk. They were made in the late 1800’s and even back then they cost so much that some millionaires would settle for a less decorated one. There’s one on ebay that has a starting bid of $46,000 for the lowest grade desk and a high grade desk for $250,000.

More reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooton_desk

The three pictures show it in my old California shop. It’s laying on my workbench (a solid core door) face up in the first picture.

The second shows one of the doors setting on the floor and the last is the desk without one door (the one sitting on the floor)

This one below shows the picture I am basing it on. I lost the file on on an old computer and for the life of me I can’t find it online anymore. So this picture is all I have.

This is close to what I am working for. They are not exactly what mine will look like but they should give you an idea.

This has got to be my favorite bottle stopper to date. I turned it about a week ago, and hesitated to include it in this series. First off, I wanted to keep it, and second, there was a hariline crack in the wood. I wanted to see how it would fare (after superglueing and sanding) and giving some time to hang out in the dry dry house – to see if I’d have to repair it some more, or (gasp) turn it down smaller to hopefully pare off the imperfection, and risk loosing the entire blank – before I was comfortable offering it up to friends and family.

This rare specimen came from Karsons collection. I traded some Apple wood I liberated from a local orchards winter trimmings in return for a treasure trove of lathe worthy goodies.

From the gospel according to Karson, supplemented with some info from the web :

Desert Ironwood is a protected species. No living trees can be harvested. It grows in the Sonoran Desert in Southwest USA and Mexico. You need a federal or state permit to be able to collect the dead trees from the desert. It’s very slow growing shrub to small gnarly tree, with lots of splits and cracks and very tight growth rings. The sapwood is light yellow, the heartwood is brown with black streaks. When it is sanded it shines like no other wood I’ve ever seen and hard as a rock and heavy, It sinks in water.

I love the grain on this one, I so wanted to keep this one for myself for it’s appearance and rarity. I didn’t know what the proportion of heartwood to sapwood was going to be until I got to turning and the “landscape” in the grain revealed itself. Can be described as hard to work, I loved this wood (use a respirator though). Such a great wood to work, and the contrasting grain. Such tight growth rings from its very very slow growing habit.

This stopper is sanded super smooth, buffed even smoother, and finished with walnut oil to really bring out the woodgrain but without yellowing it further as some other oil finishes may do. As with all the other stoppers I make, this one is machined from a solid piece of stainless steel, not chrome plated that will flake off. Ever.

This is the 20th item in my 30 day project/challenge
& auction.

Here is an Entertainment Center I built from Red Oak. This case piece houses a large screen TV and its associated components. The upper side units pull out to reveal three shelves for storage.
Alan

... the bouguet was carved from magohany wood. The dimensions of the bouquet is 20’’ x 12’’ x 3’’. I spend about 100 hours to finish this projekt.

From a magazine plan. The night stands are taken from an old arts and crafts catalog, I drew up the plans myself and went from the dimensions in the catalog as far as height and overall dimensions.
Also, the lamps are a collaboration of efforts between myself and my brother-in-law, a crystal cutter. I turned the bases from black walnut, he suppled the crystal and assembled them.

This is a prototype. I have been wanting to venture into the world of chair makers for some time. This is where I started. I was mainly seeing how I could do the compound angle used to attach legs to the seat of this type of sitting contraption. I had a couple trashy stools that I have used in the shop for about 20 years. they are K-Mart crap but have worked and are the right height. I used them to loosely pattern this stool. Carleen has been after me to build more “Rustic” furniture. Well, this is about as rustic as it gets. Don’t look too close. We aren’t even going to get into all the mistakes on this one. The legs are leftover pine from my work bench. The top is a piece of 1 1/2 inch Alder and the rails are left over Oak from the fireplace.I drilled the top at a 10 degree compound angle and turned the ends of the legs on the lathe. I drove them through the top and then split them with a chisel and wedged them. I made the legs hexagon on the router table and the roughed them up. Don’t ask how the rails are attached, it ain’t purty. Like I said this was to learn on and I sure did!! I put 3/4 inch of high density foam on the top and sewed the carving leather to some chap leather. I carved the top and then stretched the chap leather down over the foam and the top. I then applied the band and tacked it down. This was to learn on before I begin on the 4 Oak stools that I am going to build next. Well, right after I do Carleen a foot stool. I got the idea for the top from the clock I just did. It works well for what it is intended to do.

I made 3 of these from a plan in the Woodworker’s Journal (don’t quote me on that, but I’m pretty sure.) They are red oak and stained a dark brown. There are something like 22 mortise and tenons in each chair. It was a lot of work, I look forward to getting the seats completed in the next few weeks.

An added bonus is a shopshot of my 12 foot veneer rack and shorts cart. See my workshop for more shop pictures.

Thanks for looking.

I had a friend leave town a little while back and made this as a going away present. She was traveling from Iowa to L.A. and had to fit everything in her car, so I thought it a good idea to keep the present small. I found a nice piece of maple with a little curl to the grain, and used some padauk for inlays and for some details on the back. Finished with tung oil, and Fuhr water-clear acrylic varnish.

I needed a horizontal drill for making the Vintage sleighs The brass escutcheon pins that were used to hold the pieces together needed to be drilled into the middle of 1/4” wood and to not blow out the side. The pins are about 10 thousands bigger than a 1/16” drill bit. So I drill the hole and then put in the pin.

This type jig is used when making round Shaker Boxes to drill the holes very close to the edge and to allow the toothpick dowel to be put in.

It’s 1/2” Baltic birch with a 1 7/8” hole that fits the collar on the drill body. I use stacks of wood and shims to get the drill bit to the correct height that I need to do the drilling. You then push the wood in to the required depth.

The block to hold the drill is glued and screwed. The block that holds it in the vise is also glued and screwed.

A little something for my mother for Christmas. Cherry with shellac and wax.