I have been blessed with an interest in woodworking. And, I feel especially blessed to have a new shop in which to do my work. My next door neighbor and good friend, Cam Klassen, found an old barn in Michigan that he and his son Luke were able to disassemble and rebuild on my place. This structure serves as my woodworking shop.
Cam and Luke built the shop last winter while we were finishing our new house. This spring and summer saw the wiring and final work done on the shop so that I could begin setting up my woodworking equipment.
While the shop was still in the building process, I went online and began to bid on used equipment. With limited finances, I tried to purchase good, used equipment that would serve most of my purposes. With that in mind, I bought a table saw, a band saw, an edge sander, a planer, a chop saw, a jointer and a mortising machine. I bought the mortising machine with the idea of building furniture in mind. I like the look of mortise and tenon joinery. Plus, it is probably the strongest joint you can build.
This is a hobby shop, not a business. That, however, is subject to change. I reserve the right to sell products made in my shop. In the meantime, I hope to build some furniture for our own home, as well as a few things for the family. I also enjoy building traditional-archery bows. Most of the bows I have built have been long bows, but I hope to learn more about how to build a recurved bow. What I would really like to do is to help any young person who is interested in building their own bow. So to that end, I have been experimenting with a simple design that can be easily replicated. This is not as simple as it may sound, so the experiments continue. Safety is uppermost, so what you want is to minimize the failure rate. I don't want a bow to break and injure someone.
What I am finding is that going to the shop and working with wood is good therapy. I enjoy working on a project and seeing it come to completion. For most of this year, the process has mostly centered on getting the equipment set up and operational. I try to take one machine at a time and go through it to make sure all the parts are in place and the machine is tuned up and ready to go. One of the downsides to buying used equipment is that it is difficult to determine the true state of the machine just from looking at a picture. Sometimes you get what you think you ordered and sometimes you don't. Sometimes you actually get more than you expected. That is what I call a blessing.
I don't know if all woodworkers are like me, but it seems like there is always another tool or machine that would come in handy in the shop. The real job is convincing Linda that I really need it. Actually, Linda has been pretty good about me having a shop to work in as a retirement project. I think she enjoys getting me out of the house. She is usually quilting in the basement. So it works really well for me to go to the shop and putter around.
This past week, I finished a table I have been building for Linda. I made it out of quarter-sawn white oak and black walnut. I also added a few butterfly inserts I made out of padauk. This was just for contrast. They are kind of bright reddish-orange and really pop against the white oak. The table has a clear finish, so all the woods are their natural color. I think it turned out pretty nice. Linda is happy and, if Linda is happy, everybody is happy. Just kidding. Heh, heh. Linda is almost always happy.
I also built a little bench that turned out well. I might build a few more of those. They are sturdy and could be useful in different situations. It is unique in that I used dowels to secure the joints instead of screws. The dowels are darker than the bench wood so you have a nice contrast.
I'm beginning to think about what I might make for family members for Christmas -- maybe an end table or night stand or magazine rack. I have been searching online for interesting items that would not be too difficult to build and yet would be unique. I have found one item that stands out to me. It is a piano bench that was designed by Gustav Stickley back in the late 1800s or early 1900s. The bench is beautifully designed and the website where I found a picture of it sells them for $1,200 (yes, that figure is correct). I think I could sell them for quite a bit less. We'll see, I reckon. At any rate, the woodworking is just getting under way at the new shop and I am a happy camper.
Sam Byrnes is a Gentry-area resident and weekly contributor to the Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 10/28/2015