some Christmas presents

I kept meaning to post these here as I completed them but never got around to taking decent pics. Anyway, here's a rundown of what I've been up to since October in preparation for Christmas.

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I made this Cocobolo humidor for my dad with one of the three pieces (2x4s, roughly 28" long) he had under his workbench for some 40 years. We think it was cut in the 1950s or even earlier (so pretty dry, I guess :D). I lined it and made the sliding tray with Spanish Cedar, and splined it with a Cocobolo pen blank that had more orange in it. I bought a Beal buffing wheel to finish it with their 3-part system. It worked pretty well, but I'll definitely spend more time sanding before I buff next time as any defects in the sanding only become more apparent with the buffing.

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My sister and BiL got a set of three Shaker nesting tables made out of Red Oak. The tops and aprons were made with left overs from my entryway table and bits I found around my maker space. The legs, however, came out of a board I bought from a local mill. I was surprised to find some spalting in it, and managed to get six spalted legs out of it that made for a good show face I think. I finished it with spirits, BLO and poly in various combinations.

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I picked up a Hard Maple board from a localish sawyer and made a big end grain cutting board out of some of it for my mom. Just mineral oil and bees wax went on this.

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Finally, the FiL requested a fly tying bench. After figuring out what the heck that was I took a look at a few designs online and came up with this. It's all Cherry accept for the two poplar drawer kickers. The case is continuous grain with the drawer cut out of the front face. The top, bottom and tray panels are all bookmatched, and the tray top has wedged, through tenons for extra strength. I picked up a half-blind dovetail fixture for my router and managed to hide all the panel and kicker groves in them so I didn't have to plug anything. The top will eventually be secured with some small trunk latches (en route from Hong Kong still). I figured with the tray separate he might have some more flexibility with what he wants to do. This was definitely my most ambitious project yet, and while there were a few mistakes along the way I think I was able to hide them well enough. He was definitely happy with it, so that's a win in my book. I finished it the same way I did the tables.

Really nice work, Dave. I'm sure you had some very happy recipients. I have to say though that those spalted legs would have ended up in my wood stove and not on those otherwise lovely tables, but that's just me.

John

I couldn't agree more, John. Fine work. I especially like the fly tying bench. Things with specialty uses are very attractive because of their uniqueness.

All very nice Dave. I like the color contrast on the humidor - I'll copy that sometime!

Fred

Great stuff! And, my experience is, that when I do projects as gifts I get full support for my hobby year round....

:)