Photo Gallery

These are just a few of my more successful woodworking projects. They reflect different degrees of competence as my skills have developed, and looking back at some of the pieces, I would do things differently now. But even the simplest has its own integrity, which I’m still proud of. I built all of them primarily with hand tools, and many were built with no power tools at all.

I will update the page periodically as I build new things.

Furniture

I built this “mule chest” (a blanket chest with drawers below) for my daughters’ bedroom. Made entirely from wood I had on hand, the case is pine and cypress, and the chest bottom is cedar.

This four-drawer dresser is built from Southern yellow pine. Each drawer features hand-cut dovetails and solid-wood bottoms. The piece was made to order for my daughter’s bedroom.

This writing desk is made from salvaged materials. The base was originally part of a treadle sewing machine that we inherited from a family member. The top is figured mahogany that I acquired from the widow of a local woodworker who had passed away some years ago.

A trestle dining table made from locally-harvested cherry wood.

A pair of Shaker nightstands in black cherry.

I built this three-tier bunk bed for my three daughters. I made it from southern yellow pine that I bought at the lumberyard. The joinery is mortise-and-tenon on the ends, with lapped dovetails (reinforced by carriage bolts) for the rails. Each bed has a built-in shelf at the head. And yes, the ladder is secured to the bed.

I build a lot of bookshelves. This one features a solid poplar back and a live-edge pine top.

Boxes

Tool chest built from quarter-sawn cherry and spalted pecan. The chest is approximately 34″ wide, 22″ tall, and 20″ deep. It is finished with hand-rubbed Danish oil.

My wife commissioned these pencil boxes for our children. The carcases are black walnut, and the tops and bottoms are spalted pecan.

One of the first dovetailed carcases I built, this tool chest with inset tray has been very useful.

Tools

I built these backsaws from kits I acquired from Blackburn Tools. The handles are spalted pecan.

A small marking gauge I made from curly maple and purpleheart for my daughter.

A stair saw I made from spalted pecan.

A mortise gauge I made after a gauge I saw on Peter Follansbee’s blog. The woods are cherry and pecan, and the gauge works very well.

Wood Shaping

A briar pipe of my own design.

I use a wide variety of hardwoods to make wooden utensils. Most is salvaged locally from downed trees.

One Christmas we got an order for a hundred handmade wooden spoons and spreaders. We got really good at making them.

I make a lot of wooden spoons and spatulas. Sometimes I find really beautiful wood to use, like this spalted pecan and oak.

A wooden trough made from Chinese tallow tree (a.k.a popcorn tree). The tree came down in my neighbor’s yard during a storm.

Beginnings

I built this pine dovetailed box and wall shelf during a joinery class at Homestead Heritage in 2006. My wife made the bowls during a pottery class she took there. It was my first exposure to cutting joinery with hand tools–and I was hooked!

My first commissioned piece, a cedar altar cross for our church in Texas. The base design is sometimes called a “graded cross,” and the three steps may represent the three cardinal virtues (faith, hope, charity) or the three steps of penance (contrition, confession, satisfaction).

My wife built this dovetailed casserole carrier under my direction. It is big enough to carry our biggest casserole dish. It is one of the most useful projects we have ever done, and we got to do it together.