Category Archives: Furniture

Take that, Ikea.

When a Furniture Maker Buys Furniture

The other day I suddenly realized that, to my knowledge, I have never actually bought a piece of furniture. When we were newlyweds, my wife and I gladly accepted nearly any secondhand (or third- or fourth-hand) furniture that was offered … Continue reading

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Building the Mule Chest

Most of the time my projects begin because I have a problem I need to solve, and sometimes they begin with me reading a book. This time it was both. The book I’ve been reading is The Anarchist’s Design Book … Continue reading

Posted in Boxes, Build-Alongs, Furniture, Wood and Woodwork | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

What to Do with an Old Treadle Sewing Machine

My wife and I were cleaning out one of our storage spaces, and she dragged out a very old treadle sewing machine.  A decade in the heat and humidity had not been kind to its wooden parts, which hadn’t been … Continue reading

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Trash –> Treasure, or New Spoons from Old Furniture

When I sell my spoons and spatulas at craft markets, people always ask me, “Where do you get the wood?”  I often laugh because, truth be told, practically ever piece of wood has a story behind it.  More often than … Continue reading

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Then Disaster Struck: Dining Table Repair

We had been eating around our new dining table for about week.  Then one afternoon my oldest daughter and I were sitting in the living room when we heard a tremendous crash from the dining room.  We ran out to … Continue reading

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Building a Dining Table, Part Three: Assembly and Inlay

Each stage of building this table has had its unique challenges.  First it was cutting usable lumber out of some pretty seriously damaged boards.  Then it was surfacing everything by hand.  Now, after the final glue-up, I was faced with … Continue reading

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Building a Dining Table, Part 2: Clamps and Pegs

The majority of my time on this project was spent surfacing the boards for the top.  I hand-planed all the boards from the rough-sawn stock, and I must have carried out four or five garbage bags of wood shavings in … Continue reading

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Build a Cedar Bench in an Hour

One summer afternoon not long ago, my wife and oldest daughter had gone out, leaving me to mind the little ones.  We decided to make a fire in the fire pit and roast hot dogs for supper.  We lit the fire … Continue reading

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A New Door, a New Bed, a New Daughter

My summer ended with big woodworking plans for the coming year.  (Most people’s year begins on January first, but being a professor, I think as much in school years as in calendar years, so my year effectively begins in mid-August.)  … Continue reading

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Building Bunk Beds in Burma

Not long ago, my brother led a small team of Americans as they completed a major woodworking project for an orphanage in Myanmar (formerly Burma), in Southeast Asia.  The orphanage, which houses approximately 120 children, had no proper beds for … Continue reading

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