Marble Tracks. Wormy Soft Maple; 1999. I Made twelve of these for Christmas - six for Toys For Tots, six for relatives; my brothers and I played with one like these when we were kids.

Shotglass Display Case. White oak; 2000. A friend of mine collects shotglasses, and had a case similar to this that he'd filled. I made this one to match. The moldings were done with a #45 and a KCWTW Windsor #5 Beader. Finished with dark grain filler and buttonlac kusmi #2 and blond shellac.

Jewelry Box. Cherry, Bubinga accents, Hackberry trays; 2001. Made this for my daughter's 18th birthday. Finished with a gazillion coats of buttonlac kusmi #2 and blond shellac.

Bookshelf. White oak; 2001. Handcut sliding dovetails for the shelves; beadboard made with my KCWTW Windsor #5 Beader. Finished with dark grain filler and padded-on buttonlac kusmi #2 shellac. Padding shellac is definitely the way to go - coats go on very thin, but no dust, no bumps. I didn't have to sand this at all - just rubbed it out with a little 0000 steel wool and wax.

Om. Steel sheet welded to a harrow disk; 1996. I had taken a metal sculpture class, and we went to an incredible old-iron junkyard, which yielded the harrow disk and a few other goodies. The finish consists of flat black spray paint on the harrow disk, and copper patina kit on the steel sheet. (The kit consists of copper paint, to be followed by a patina solution; instead of following the instructions, I daubed the solution on with a brush before the copper paint was dry, creating the mottled appearance.)

Adjustable-mouth panel-raising plane. Hard maple / birdseye maple; 2003. The moveable portion of the mouth slides in dovetailed ways, tightened by a brass screw. You can open the mouth to hog the panel down most of the way, finishing with a nice tight mouth. Iron made from O-1 steel. much more info on the plane here.

Panel-raising plane, view of the sole; I sharpened the iron a tiny bity out of shape, resulting in the scorch marks on the sole.

Platform bed. Birch ply, hard maple, and hem-fir 2x6 lumber; 2004. Son Andy, college sophmore, needed a bed for his first house shared with some other guys. So we built this together - who'd think a 20-yr old would still do a project with his dad? The base is birch ply with maple corners. The top is construction lumber with maple corners. Finished with boiled linseed oil and turpentine. Andy says it's very comfortable...

Fretless bass guitar. curly maple, hard maple, ebony; 2004. Nick, my best friend's 15-yr old son, built this in my shop with my supervision. This young man took to handtools like a fish to water. The neck is hard maple stiffened with two carbon fibre rods, with an ebony fretboard. The neck mortise fits like a glove. Finished with green dye, blond shellac, and about 30 coats of Deft aerosol laquer. Sanded up to 2000, then polished with automotive polishing compound, topped with auto wax. Looks, feels, and plays really nice. (I haven't heard it yet, but Nick says it sounds great.) He's ready to start the next bass, but I think we oughta build him a bench first... The sign on the wall, which I probably should have removed for the photo, is a reminder lest I get too cocky in the shop...

Hat Tree. Soft Maple / Paduak; 1999. My first mostly handtool project. I glued a slice of paduak between two pieces of maple, ripped that in half the other way, and laminated another slice of paduak between the halves.

Shelf for small items. Hackberry; 2000. Mostly handtools, including thicknessing. Finished with tinted grain filler, boiled linseed oil, and wax.

Shotglass Display Case. White oak; 2000. Close-up of corner, showing moldings. No router was used in the making of this piece. Or any other piece, for that matter, except for a #71.

Jewelry Box. Cherry, Bubinga accents, Hackberry trays; 2001. The box open.

Tool tote.Birch (of course, the flame doesn't show in the photo); 2001. This was fun - an exercise in handcut double-beveled dovetails. Earnest Joyce (Encyclopedia of Furniture Making) helped me understand the geometry involved. Finished with linseed oil/turpentine, with a coat of wax.

Crib for granddaughter Maddy. White oak; 2002. Finished with blend of spar varnish, linseed oil, and turpentine, wiped on. Used a Woodsmith plan for this, although I couldn't bring myself to using their groove / spacers technique for the slats and accent pieces, so I cut all the mortises by hand.

Panel-raising plane, view from the top; the moveable portion of the mouth can be seen half-way down the throat.

Raised-panel shutters. Poplar; 2003. Here's why I finally had to finish the panel-raising plane. Our bedroom window faces south, and the sun can be pretty brutal weekend mornings. No more. Finished with sprayed latex paint, with a couple of coats of waterborne laquer. The bedroom is a lot warmer in the winter, too.

Six-panel arched door. Hard maple, with shop-cut veneer on mdf panels; 2004. Eight feet tall, 30 inches wide, finished with super-blonde shellac followed by sprayed waterborne laquer. My most ambitious project to-date. The top arch of the door and the casing moulding are each glued up from five mitred pieces, with splines. The tennon shoulders took forever where the center stile joins the arch. The frame arch was made by gluing up 1/8 inch slices of maple in a mold made from a stack of mdf. The arch portion of the door-stop moulding is not even glued, just nailed in place. We live in a townhouse; this door is the bedroom door, in the living-room wall. A stunning feature that attracts the eye immediately upon entering the front door.