The Time Machine

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it”

— Roald Dahl

Completing a project in my shop usually plays out like this:  first, I dance around and scream “It’s finished, it’s finished!” as loud as I can.  I’m ecstatic that I managed to finish the damn thing so I can move on to something else.  Once I realize that no one else in the house actually cares, I stop screaming and start to feel a little sad.  I’ve invested a lot of effort and emotion into the project which can make it difficult to move on. 

My curved-front desk project came to a close over the holidays.  It was a long and complex project, and I have a lot of memories stored up in it.  My projects act like a real-world version of Professor Dumbledore’s Pensieve.  Every piece of the project triggers a vivid recollection of my state of mind, surroundings, and worries at the time that I made it.  It’s a lot like hearing a song from years ago that instantly transports you back to that time in your life.

When I run my hands along the sweep of the legs I remember how hot it was the day that I cut the curves.  I was listening to Fleet Foxes on repeat and I nicked my finger on the blade of my spokeshave.  The dovetail joinery between the front rails and the drawer dividers reminds me of how sick I was when I cut those joints.  I can pinpoint the exact spot where I stopped mid-saw cut to go to the hospital.  Seeing the aprons joined to the legs brings back a vivid memory of complete joy when the joints slide together perfectly with minimal trimming of the tenons.  The drawers remind me of the despair I felt as I struggled to motivate myself to finish them over multiple consecutive Sundays, with my Chicago Bears losing on the TV in my shop and autumn rain pouring down outside.  And the top will forever remind me of the day that I explained to my eight-year-old daughter how the front edge would mirror the curve of the front of the carcase and she sighed, nodded, and said, “That sounds nice, but why don’t you just leave it square so it’ll be done already?”

A hand-made piece of furniture isn’t just some planks of wood stuck together.  Its a culmination of dozens of hours of work and thousands of decisions.  Everything I’ve ever made is a physical representation of that period of my life capable of transporting me back through time.  And that is one thing I know I’ll never get from a store-bought piece of furniture. 

Clark's Cutting Board Oil and Finish

Standard Disclaimer:  I have no affiliation with the manufacturer of these products.  I purchased them with my own money and the Amazon links are provided below as a convenience for the reader; they are not affiliate links and I gain nothing if you buy them.  I just wanted to tell you about a product that I like.  So there.

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It’s the holiday season… and that means shop-made gifts!  One of the items I made this year was a small cutting board from maple and cherry scraps.  When it came time to apply a finish, I decided to try out Clark’s Cutting Board Oil and Clark’s Cutting Board Finish.

Since this cutting board was raw wood, I wanted to soak it with oil before applying a final finish.  That’s where Clark’s Cutting Board Oil—a wonderfully scented mixture of mineral oil, orange oil, and lemon oil—comes in.  Could you make this yourself?  Of course.  Although, I’m fairly certain that buying mineral oil, orange oil, and lemon oil, and then spending the necessary time to get the correct mixture of the three will be more costly than just purchasing Clark’s pre-made oil mixture.  The application process was simple:  I poured some of the oil mixture on the board and rubbed it in with a clean cloth.  I propped the board up on painter’s pyramids and let it soak for a few hours.  When I came back, the majority of the oil had soaked into the wood, so I wiped it down with a clean cloth and applied a second coat.

Now, I could’ve stopped right here.  But, since this cutting board was intended as a gift for mom, I decided to go the extra mile and applied a coat of Clark’s Cutting Board Finish, as well.  This product has the consistency of a paste wax—it’s a mixture of carnauba wax, beeswax, mineral oil, orange oil, and lemon oil—and it gives you the advantage of some additional water resistance when applied on top of a standard oil treatment.  Could you make this yourself?  Of course.  But I personally wouldn’t for all of the same reasons I mentioned earlier.  Applying the finish was, again, a snap:  I rubbed it into the wood in a circular motion with a clean cloth and let it sit.  A few hours later, I came back and buffed the board with a clean cloth.  Done!

So what’s the final verdict?  Well, my cutting board looks great, is fully seasoned, and smells so good that I had to physically stop myself from gnawing on it.  When you buy a pre-made cutting board finish like this, you’re paying for convenience.  If you’re a woodworker who batches out dozens or even hundreds of cutting boards, it’ll be more economical for you to mix your own custom finish.  But for someone like me who only builds cutting boards every once in a great while, a product like this is fantastic.  It’s quick, affordable, works great, and these two bottles will last for years.

Curved-Front Desk - Part 1

Some months ago, a realization slapped me across the face:  my daughters were growing up.  One day I was watching two little girls sit together at the kiddie IKEA table in our living room working on their coloring books, and the very next day there was an 11 year old girl kneeling at that same table doing algebra homework while her 8 year old sister practiced her cursive handwriting.  How did this happen?  Where did the years go?  Why were they still working on that kiddie-sized IKEA table?  As their father, I had clearly failed them.

The curved front desk project is my attempt to set things right.  I wanted an attractive adult-sized workspace for them to do their homework.  My original plan was to design a desk based on our needs, but then I stumbled upon this curved-front desk design by Chris Gochnour in Fine Woodworking #225.  It was exactly what I wanted.  Chris built his version with African mahogany, which looks amazing, but is also eye-poppingly expensive in my area.  Instead, I chose cherry for the carcase and soft maple for the drawer boxes.

I cut rift-sawn blanks out of 8/4 stock for the legs.  I gave them their modernized cabriole shape by rough cutting on the bandsaw and finessing with a spokeshave.  The back and side aprons are attached to the legs with mortise-and-tenon joints.

The front of this desk is where all the action is, and it’s constructed from six separate pieces, all of which are individually shaped to achieve a seamless curve: a top rail, two vertical dividers, a middle bottom rail, and two side bottom rails.  These pieces are held together with a wide variety of joints:  4 dovetails on the top rail, four tenons and two sliding dovetails total on the dividers, four tenons on the middle bottom rail, and four tenons and two dovetails total on the side bottom rails.  It would have been considered a healthy joinery workout on a square carcase, but in this case, all of these joints needed to be cut at various angles which makes it a bit trickier.

The drawers on this piece are side-hung.  The middle drawer was fairly straight-forward since the box itself is square, but the two side drawers are asymmetrically curved.  I wasn’t confident enough in my hand cut dovetails to use them at these odd angles, so I opted for pegged rabbet joints at the front of the drawers and through dovetails at the back.  I rough-cut the curves on the drawer fronts with the bandsaw and faired them with a spokeshave. 

I got seriously bogged down while working on the drawers.  First, I made a game-time decision to add a built-in organizer in the center drawer.  I like having a built-in organizer, but I should have planned it out more.  My biggest mistake was making the organizer flush with the top of the drawer sides.  When you pull out the drawer a bit, it naturally tilts downward a little due to the position of its center of gravity, which caused the organizer to rub on the bottom of the top rail.  I had to relieve the bottom of the top rail a bit to give more clearance, which was not an easy task with the carcase already glued up.

Next, I discovered that the right drawer pocket in my carcase was slightly out-of-square, and I ended up jumping through more hoops than necessary to get a square peg to fit smoothly in a not-quite-square hole.  My first inclination was to relieve the tight areas on the carcase using a block plane and chisels.  This was a waste of time.  Planing down the drawer sides helped a bit, but the fit was still tight near the back.  In the end, I shortened the drawer by about a 1/2" to get the fit that I needed.  

Lastly, I somehow managed to taper the right drawer front from top to bottom when rough cutting the curve on the bandsaw.  I was able to correct this with a spokeshave, but I had removed too much material and the drawer front looked too thin.  I ended up scrapping it and making a new one.

At this point, I’m nearing the finish line for this project; the top is the only component remaining.  I’ve already milled the boards, glued them up into a solid panel, and cut the panel to size.  All that's left is to cut and fair a curve on the front edge and do some smoothing with my #4.  Construction photos are available in the gallery below.