Woodcrafting - The First Shelf

Over the next few months, a lot of weird wood crafted shelves are going to appear in our house. Toying around with some bits of wood scraps, I'm learning that lots of them can be used for making neat things that are far more interesting than firewood..........though when you're really cold, wood looks best when burning. 

Here's a shelf, jazzed up with funky branches I could dangle or hang things from. It's probably overdone with the branches, but it's not a problem. They can always be lopped off later. For now I'm a bit enamored with branches, so they'll stay. 

View from one side. 

View from the other angle.

Yup, those are dinosaurs! I'm a died in the wool dino lover. 

Homemade Screendoor

Boy, I wish I had been able to take up woodworking when I was young. Girls weren't allowed to take wood shop in school while I was growing up. And as a young adult, I didn't have time to take those classes. Now that I'm retired, I'd take woodworking classes if we had a vocational school in my area. It's something I enjoy doing, even if I'm not good at it. But alas, no vocational school. In such a poor rural area, a vocational school is desperately needed. The kids here graduate high school totally ill equiped. But the higher-up officials don't seem to think that's a problem.......oh, let the kids sponge off the government....or sell drugs for a living. Oh, oh, oh---- before I get lost in a rant, I'll get back to woodworking. 

I've been dabbling in making wood things-- towel racks, door handles, and even a small table. This past week I've examined the results of David making a screendoor. It didn't look all that overwhelmingly difficult. The hard part was setting up a jig to make sure the door was square. And the second hardest thing looked to be the routering. The first just takes patience and precision. The second demands practice. 

I'm considering buying an Alaskan sawmill. I watched a fellow up the road from me use one to cut slabs for making table tops and shelves. He had modified the rig by using overhead rails to guide the mill so that he could make better cuts. It took patience and precision to get a good cut, but it sure was do-able. 

Happily I live in an all wood house. Handmade wooden towel racks don't look out of place. I think I'll keep dabbling in little woodworking projects. Who knows what I'll come up with. 

Woodcrafting Tables

I haven't tried making my own furniture yet, but I'd gonna give it a try. Every since elementary school refused to allow me into wood shop (I had to take home economics where I learned to make placemats, potholders, and aprons, yuck), I've wanted to work with wood, make useful things. But I never learned the basics as a kid, and only now am trying to figure it out. 

I recently acquired two slabs of monkey pod from a dead tree. That's a variety that grows in my area. Monkey pod has very pretty grain. Well...at least that's my opinion. These two slabs are about 2 1/2 to 3 inches thick. One is about 18 inches on its widest diameter, the other about 36". 

This bigger one has two holes in it. While others may see this as a defect, I count it as an asset. It will give the tabletop some character. Tables, yes. That's what I have in mind. 

First step is to rough sand it. The initial sanding is with #50 sandpaper and a belt sander. There are a lot of gouges from the saw, so it will take a bit of sanding. 

So after the initial sanding, this is what they look like...........

So far, I'm pretty pleased. Now I'll sand them using a finer grit, #80 paper. 

I think the grain is oh so pretty. Plus I plan on leaving the bark on and let it be rough. I still haven't figured out what sort of finish to use. Hope I decide well and don't ruin them. But we shall see what happens.