build an excellent piece of furniture out of wood

I just made a great bookshelf earlier this week. I had some leftover 12” cedar planks and since I never do anything easy, I made a shelf whose case cants inward at a 7 and 1/2 degree angle. I was originally going for a “coffin” feel since I was going to story my ghost stories in this shelf but it looks so modern and chic with just the parallelogram portion I decided not to add the top.

I need quality fine wood to create new menu board for my store.
E mail shroff786@aol.com

Sunny

not much, just a couple foot stools, but they’re nice. I would like to make some end tables and a coffee table this summer…

When I went to high school a hundred or so years ago, girls were not permitted to take wood shop or metal shop. I love the scent of fresh cut wood, especially the evergreen species, and I still intend to make at least one good piece of furniture myself, using all hand tools. In fact, I’ve saved antique iron hardware from junk shops, our own 150 y/o home, and old barns, so that I can have just the right fittings. My first project will be a chest crafted from old wood and closed with the beautiful, handcrafted window lock that I found outside in the dirt. The ceramic knob on it is intact, though ‘crazed.’ Perfect… I save ‘pretty’ boards.
Next to writing, it’s one of the best occupation or vocations that I can think of. n.kateus www.mydayjob.net

Putting this on hold temporarily.

In woodshop class in college, I made a plant stand that I’ve used ever since – - and that was ages ago!

I’m taking a class at Ballard Woodworks where we make 3 different boxes using hand tools:

http://www.newcityarts.com/classes.html

Learning how to do dovetails is a lot of fun. I don’t think it quite counts as furniture unless you can sit on it though.

And here is a bookcase that Emelle asked me to make.

Have not done any work on this lately but I still would like to. i have several plans floating around but I am still in the midst of putting together a shop. On the top of the to do list are shadow box and picture frame that will hide the television when they are installed, and a desk for one of the girls. Here is a picture of one of the chairs that goes with the dining room table I built.

When we took down our old shed last month, I saved much of the salvageable wood (some might say I saved even some of the unsalvageable wood too.) Some nice wide and thick boards. One of my wood-worker friends says I should try planing it, after checking for buried nails. Other friends are less encouraging. I’m really tempted to take off the roughness with a hand plane.

I had a, well, a vision yesterday of a perfect place for TWO of the shaker style step stools, I’ve been planning to build. Right in the bedroom, in front of a low window. We traditionally have a problem as to where we can keep some of our potted plants over the winter. A couple step stools would be perfect.

Maybe this will be the first project I attempt in the NEW shed!