In keeping with the garden and patio theme here are two small garden benches that I built a couple of years ago. I (my wife) had to give them a new coat of paint this year to ’spruce’ them up a little. Each of them are just over 3 feet long, 12 inches wide and about 18 inches tall.

They are just a couple of pieces of 2 X 10’s and a bit of 1 X 4 that my son brought home from a construction site that I slapped together. However, simple as they are they make great useful, accent pieces. I cut a couple of notches out of the skirt to add a bit of Southwest style.

Here you can see them in the garden and on the patio:

Continue reading 'Simple Garden Benches Add Accent'

While on a recent visit to Sacramento, California I had the opportunity to visit a Woodcraft store. Now, at the outset, let me say that this post may not be of interest to some of my American friends who have one of their stores nearby. To you, this may not seem to be a big deal but for years I have wanted to visit a Woodcraft store, not only because of the good things that I heard about them but simply because this was another woodworking store to visit. You know, as woodworkers, we can never pass up an opportunity to go tool shopping!

This location, though not all that large, was stocked full of, well, I guess everything that a woodworker would need. There were woodturning tools, woodcarving chisels, exotic woods, planers, table saws, bandsaws. lathes, books, pen making supplies, safety equipment, hardware and much, much more.

As you can imagine, this was a woodworkers dream, to visit a new woodworking store and to see an array of products and tools, particularly those not available at home. For those of you, who like me, have never been to a Woodcraft store, here are some photos that I took on my visit:

Continue reading 'A Wild And Wonderful Woodcraft Tour'

Here’s a Maple cutting board with Walnut accents that I recently did. It’s about 7″ square and the Walnut strips are 1/4″ wide. It’s finished with beeswax.

This was a cool exercise in creating a different pattern with the contrasting woods and something that I will be exploring more of in the future.

Back to the shop…

Here’s a cutting board that I just finished today that is made out of Maple and Cherry blocks in a checkerboard style with two Cherry ends.

It measures 8 1/2″ X 10″ X 1″ thick and finished with Tried & True a combination of linseed oil and beeswax.

Back to the shop…

When asked what hobbies I have I often mention, in addition to woodworking, how I enjoy gardening. However, lately I realized that the majority of the gardening I do would be best termed as ‘yard work’. While gardening evokes images of kneeling in a bed of sweet-smelling, brightly colored flowers musing about the beauty of life, most of what I do involves a pick, a shovel, a wheelbarrow and large boulders.

However, one thing about gardening that I don’t consider work is when I get to combine woodworking with it. The way I do this is by building projects meant for the outdoors. One of my favorite projects is a fun one I call The Birdhouse Bench. Here’s a couple I made the other day:

Each one is about 30″ wide, 15″ deep, 40″ tall and made from scrap lumber. They only take a few hours to build and make a great addition to your garden.

Continue reading 'Building Benches Is For The Birds'

Here is a table that I built about two years ago for just inside the entrance to our living room. It is made of red oak and stands 31″ tall X 34″ wide and 11″ deep. It is finished with a light stain and polyurethane.

The legs are tapered when viewed from the ends. They were tapered this way because of where the table is located the ends are seen when in the living room or either entering the front door or coming down the hall.

Continue reading 'A Red Oak Hall Table'

Although the guest speaker was unable to make it to tonight’s Atlantic Woodworkers Association meeting we had a great ’show and tell’ and Q and A session.

One of the members brought in a project he recently completed:

Continue reading 'Woodworking Show And Tell'

You should always saw with the widest blade possible for a particular cut. However, when cutting circles be aware that the width of the blade will determine the smallest radius that you will be able to cut. The smaller the blade width the smaller/tighter the radius.

Here is a list of different bandsaw blade widths and the minimum cut radius for each:

Back to the shop…

We had a special treat for this month’s Atlantic Woodworkers Association meeting - the guests were whirlygig masters Barry and Kara Coutts. Whirlygig masters, indeed!

Continue reading 'The Answer Is Blowing In The Wind'

I spent some time this past week creating a few cutting boards. Cutting boards make great gifts and are fairly easy to make. I used a variety of woods and edging to make each one different. Here they are:

The board below is approximately 10″ square and made of walnut and maple:

Continue reading 'Wooden Cutting Boards For Christmas'