Oak and Black Walnut tea light holder

A gift for my Sister in law, highly figured quarter sawn english oak with a sliding dovetailed inlay of american black walnut.

Oak butterfly

Just a practice piece.. but lovely.

English Wych Elm and English Oak platter.

A huge platter made for my friend Meryem :) A gorgeous piece of elm with intense figuring and purple and green hues coming through. a slight split that is braced with Oak butterfly inlays.
the end is finished with a sliding dovetail oak joint.

Elm and oak platter

The rear has awesome figuring and an almost 3d depth to the grain.

Spice Rack with box joints

enough for 120 spice jars... obviously plenty... until I actually started to put them in an realised its still not big enough!

Cookery Book Stand - Starting materials.

Quartersawn English oak and American black walnut..

Cookery book stand - profile machining

using the table saw and router table to take the bulk of material away to produce the profile.

Cookery book stand - sliding dovetail

routing the dovetail profile to the base.

Cookery book stand - rear legs

Removing the bulk of the rear with the drill press and then router and straight bit.

Cookery book stand - Machining feet

To make sure the stand sits flat on the work top, I machined away the base to leave four small feet which i then flattened on the belt sander.

Cookery book stand - awaiting finishing

Just needs final sanding and oiling. For oiling I'll be using Osmo poly X satin.. this is ideal for use in a kitchen where it can be wiped down.

Cookery Book Stand - Finished piece

A gift for my mom :)

its large enough for virtually any book, and works remarkably well.

Cookery book stand - rear profile

Really pleased with the figuring across the back of the legs.

Removable insect mesh screens

Removable inverted oak frames held in place with quarter turn sash window catches.
Allows my to have a nice breeze through the kitchen without the flys coming in off the nearby fields

Simple platters

With some machined cutaways, I realised later this is a religious symbol signifying the father, son and holy ghost.. ahhh well still looks nice!

Table saw zero clearance insert

made from a piece of gorgeous Spalted beech... completely unnecessary but lovely!

Guitar display stand

A very simple wall mounted guitar stand for my acoustic base. English oak.

Highly figured platter

English oak and american black walnut

Highly figured platter - jointing

A super tight sliding dovetail, no glue required!

Highly figured platter - cutaway detail

I like the way the hole and rounding has broken through the dovetail profile to create this pattern in the inner.

Farmhouse dining table - stripping back

yes lots of sanding!!

French farmhouse dining table - Stripping back

Taking the French oak right back to bare wood and removing the heavy dark varnish.

French farmhouse dining table - Aging

Applying an ageing wash that settles into the grain and brings out the figuring.

French Farmhouse Dining table - finished

Finished with gallons of broadleaf hardwax oil.. and lots of sanding!

Oak dining chair backs

Oak simply mitered then jointed with american black walnut. rounded edges on the front and chamfers on the rear.. Surprisingly comfy to lean against.

Bespoke mid century dining chairs

Fitted with my oak chair backs.

French Oak platters

My first try with epoxy, used to stabilise and fill the knot voids.

French oak platters - finished

after lots of 400grit sanding, 1500 grit in the epoxy areas.. then two coats of hardwax oil and a polish with beeswax.

TV picture frame

To help soften the look of having a TV in the kitchen I purchased this Sony picture frame tv, but it had a shiny black plastic frame.. so I made this slip with some nice hand sawn oak and hand cut box joints. simply pushes on with a tight fit.

Saw display stand

For my Bad Axe Toolworks 'beast' framing saw. A gorgeous tool that deserves a special stand.
Made from American black walnut with handout oak dovetailed ends. simply grips on the saw blade.

Reconditioned Cherry chest of drawers

New drawer

in the same contruction as the originals, Cherry front, Oak sides and back.

Handcut dovetail drawer joints

Elm and Walnut platter

A gift for Hannah :)

Oak TV Cabinet

For my fancy new TV.. just a simple construction but with nice timber and good consistent gaps achieved.

Cookery book shelving

French Oak, all jointed no glue or fixings.. dovetails on the shelf joints, dowels on the mitered corners and interlocking for the central overlaps.

Garlic chopping board

English wych Elm with a simple but crisp shaping and chamfers.

Sunroom skirting and step

Oak skirting around the room, with dark oak step.. the flash of light oak on the front edge is natural in the timber and the oak keys were picked to match it.

The sunroom step

the timber was actually two pieces jointed together. i was determined to use the main piece for the step as the natural curve matched the position of the doorway and the fine crack across the heartwood was perfect for some inlays and epoxy fill.

3 coats of Oslo Poly X clear gloss and it's doing its job to welcome visitors into the home.

Christmas 2019!

Boards for Family and freinds, names for my nieces :)

Maple, Black Walnut and Purpleheart end grain board.

Gift for my brother and sister in law. I kept the shattered piece of walnut to one side and soaked it in epoxy to stabilise it..

The purpleheart was pretty tricky for the bevel edge, tending to tear.. but addressed through bump cutting and then a reversed 'climb' cut on the router table. finished to 400grit sanding and then soaked in Mineral oil overnight and a beeswax finish.

A first proper try with the scroll saw.. ended up looking quite Harry Potter style which wasn't intentional, but no bad thing for a 10yr old :)

Absolute sod to finish, sanding was fine, but I used polyX hardware oil which tended to pool and run with the complex forms.. I'll try danish oil next time.

Exotic end grain boards

A real mixture of timbers, Maple, Black walnut, Ash, Bubinga, Purpleheart, Ebony, Wenge, Cocobolo, tulipwood.

the cocobolo and purple heart tended to tear on routing... so best to cut the handholds before final trimming. again finished to 400grit and soaked in mineral oil with a beeswax finish

Ferarri F1 Exhaust Mounting

A lovely Piece of English Sycamore with intense flaming across its width. the natural shaping of the timber suited the exhaust and compliments the used titanium exhaust beautifully I think.

Oak Windowsill

A simple piece of English oak that took ages to find as I wanted a cleanish grain but ain interesting knot that could be braced. the knot was cleaned out with files and sandpaper, aged to darken it up, a base of black walnut was installed to again keep it dark.. then it was braced with two inlays of lighter oak.

Door thresholds

Door thresholds between rooms through the house. With the installation of new sisal carpet through the upstairs of the house I made up these massively flamed english oak door thresholds. the also give a really nice sold feel underfoot and hide the edging of the carpeting.

Stair bannister / handrail

I wanted a nice clean simple handrail up the stairs, but once it was made it felt a little flat.. so I sketched up some swallow silhouettes as they often fly around the house in an evening... these were made up of sycamore and black walnut and placed to match the grain of the oak so it looks like they are rising on the thermals from the mountains below :)