The kitchen island in my new house was calling for a pair of bar stools. My shop stool that I completed in the Shop Stool Build-Off found its way there during the move, and with the chaos reigning in my shop, I was happy to let it live there. A second stool was in order, and … Continue reading Shop Stools/Bar Stools
In 2007, I was into turning in a big way. I got into turning pens using exotic woods carefully paired with a package of pen hardware. My preference was chrome-plated hardware for its durability and affordable price. The result, when paired with African Blackwood, was an undeniably classy pen. One special piece of wood was … Continue reading Roots of Flair: Pushing the Limits
After routing the jigsaw puzzle design, I made a base out of four mitred lengths of black walnut to raise the table up off the ground. That way, it didn't just look like a cube sitting on the ground. Then came finishing. Let's just say that it required some patience to get an even coat … Continue reading Finishing Puzzle Table
In Part I of this project, I cut mitred returns in the cherry crotch slab and joined the three legs to the table top with Domino floating tenons. I then cut and fit five maple dovetail keys. Due to the way that the wood dried, neither the top nor the legs were particularly flat, so … Continue reading Single-Slab Cherry Coffee Table, Part II
Part of my attraction to wood was the way it felt. In its natural state, wood was covered by bark that covered the undulating live edge. After being sawn into boards at a sawmill, the surface was covered in rough saw marks. Then, as the lumber was processed, the roughness was typically removed by planing or sanding, leaving … Continue reading Roots of Flair: Exploration of Texture and Latch Installation
No matter how much time I have, there never seems to be enough. For that reason, I make many of my decisions based on efficiency. My decision to use a hand tool or a power tool for a given task is dependent on what I feel is more efficient for the task at hand. In my effort to … Continue reading One-Step Joinery
It's not uncommon for we humans to strive for perfection. We can drive ourselves insane and spend our lifetime trying to achieve it. As David Savage would say, "perfection is a terrible taskmaster". The creative people over at The New York Times created a program that reads their articles and scans for haikus. They choose the … Continue reading Perfection May Be a Goal
My style of woodwork has been influenced predominantly by the materials I had, things I saw, and ideas I explored. Naturally, my designs have evolved over the years. While reorganizing my workshop, I found a few unfamiliar cardboard boxes. They contained some of my work from around the start of Flair Woodworks. I will be sharing photographs … Continue reading Roots of Flair
The large majority of the wood that I have is sawn in slabs. While the live edges allow more design possibilities, there are times when I don't need them. Layout To process this slab, I start by aligning my straight edge just inside the bark. This results in the straightest grain with the least amount of waste. … Continue reading Breaking Down Slabs
“The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” – William James Chances are, if you're a woodworker, you're already doing this. Keep at it! Links: I found this quote here on the Swiss-Miss blog My list of Quotables
