Rustic bar stool #3

Well I finally finished rustic bar stool #3.  The legs are just cheap 2x4 material (not even sanded) and the top is oak.  It's very wide and quite comfortable.  The legs were stained dark then given one light coat of yellow-ish paint.

Collect the whole set.

Oh but wait, rustic bar stool #2 'tips over too easy'.  So it's back to the drawing board for the rustic bar stool collection.  Drew's reaction was the same as mine.

Natural edge cutting board

I had a leftover piece of natural edge walnut from another project I have going on.  I made this cutting board/serving board.  The finish is just mineral oil.

Workout

Tuning these hand planes can be a lot of work.  They're fun to use when they operate correctly.  Before you know it you're wore out.  Today I got my smoother razor sharp, did a few test cuts, then flattened  what will be the book covers for the humidor (in the background below).

New jointer plane

Got a new toy the other day.  It's a 22" jointer plane I got from Grizzly.  This was only $60 but the good ones are easily over $300.  The sole wasn't flat when I got it but about an hour of sanding later it's close.  I sharpened the blade and gave it a test run.  Worked great as you can see from all the paper thin curls.

Book binder

I thought I would mess this up a few times, but now have a book binder, first try.

Thanks to this handy jig. 

Hand tools

I'm starting to have a real appreciation for hand tools.  Mostly because they're the only thing I can use while the kids are asleep.  Second, they do a whole bunch of things a power tool (at least the ones I have) can't really do.  

The piece on the bottom is the seat of yet another rustic bar stool that I'm building.  The concave seat had all sorts of band saw marks, glue, and 2 uneven halves.  I took a card scraper and cleaned up the hold thing.  I could have done this with a belt sander but my shop would have been covered in a (another) layer of dust.  Now I just have that small pile of shavings.

The piece on top is what might be the binder of a book shaped humidor.  I shaped this entirely with my Stanley smoothing plane and WoodRiver block plane.  More exciting posts to come on that.

Wooden block plane

I made this block plane for dad for Christmas.  The plane has 11 laminated layers.  The bigger pieces are walnut and oak.

Rolling pin

I made this rolling pin for mom.  I didn't see the big knot when I started, but I guess it's fine now as this will most likely be for display purposes.  The wood is oak and purple heart.

Another rubber band gun

This one is a 4 shot gun I made for my nephew.

Quarto board game

This game was a gift for my sister's family.  It was a bigger hit than I thought it would be.  It's like connect 4 on steroids.  My favorite testimonial is from my niece Morgan, "It's really fun when you can trap people.  My grandpa is really easy to trap."