When I introduced myself on the site, I said I was working on a jewelry box for my daughter. Well, after about 20 hours and a lot of mistakes because I made it up as I went, here it is. I looked at a lot of pictures on the web and formulated my own plan with ideas from a lot of them and of course my daughter’s input. Thanks again for the great site!

The piece is made of solid red oak except for the drawer bottoms and lid inlay which are 1/4″ oak ply. The construction is actually very simple. The main case is made with a dado on the sides so that the end grain is only showing from the back. The front false drawer sits in a stopped dado and has a 1/2″ roundover to match the drawer fronts. The drawers are constructed using a homemade drawer lock joint for a lack of better terminology, and have 1/4″ dadoes cut in the sides to ride on oak runners glued to the inside of the case. The dividers are just cut-offs that I planed down to 1/8″ to match the kerf of one of my blades which was used to cut interlocking slots. The top was made about 2″ deep so that I had plenty of room for padding and velvet fabric plus a mirror that was epoxied on. I would like to give credit for that idea, but I can’t remember where I saw it. I then made a base from some scrap pieces of oak flooring, mitered the corners, cut rabbet for the case to sit in and rounded the corners. Stained and poly all parts and glued it up. Added some knobs and handles and put a done stamp on it. The finished piece measures around 20″w x 12″d x 10″h. I didn’t have any plans to go by, I just made it up as I went. Again, I want to express my sincere appreciation for the great things you do for tthe woodworking community. I have learned so much from your site and it is inspiring.

Here are some specifics about the project:

The Honduras Mahogany I received for free from a woodshop that had accidentally planed the rough lumber too thin for their use! Tragic. The grain pattern shifts around in the light – which I thought was interesting and Denise was able to select the pieces herself – which was also cool. (The box was a surprise, but the lumber wasn’t.)

I don’t own a planer – so I left it 3/4 – which might be strange for such a small box – but works for a new guy! It was my first drawer box and it took a little while to get sized just right. I opted to not try anything fancier than a dado…but it’s tight enough for this small stuff.

I made up the dimensions and the basic design, partly from your maple/bubinga box (awesome by the way) and partly from the sizes of the pieces I was trying to use up. Your design video also helped. The earring holder I saw in a magazine on someone else’s box and tried it out with just some blade kerfs. The rest of it was made-up-as-you-go.

By the way – there is a sliding dovetail joint in there above the dbox. My first one. I’ll probably use that a lot more because it’s pretty strong and easy to make. Plus it looks like I know what I’m doing. Personally, I can see a number of places to self-improve– the finish, the open grain issue on Mahogany, etc. I think I’ll need to buy your finishing video for the next one! In any case. I hope you enjoy it.

A French cleat is as ingenious as it is simple. It involves securing a strip of wood with a 45 degree bevel to the wall, and then securing an opposing beveled strip on the back of a cabinet or anything you want to hang. Its incredibly strong and versatile. Its a great way to hang cabinetry and as you’ll see in this video, it can be used to make an awesome modular wall storage unit.

Hi Marc, I like this site. I have learned a lot from it. I am new to this woodworking thing. My next project is going to be an entertainment center which will basically be two tall cabinets with doors. The doors will be stiles on the sides with a tenonned rail at the top and bottom with a recessed panel that sits in a routed “slot”. My question is what do you do to the ends of the stiles to make them look good? I have built some doors as a test and the end grain just soaks up the stain and doesn’t look good. I have similar doors in my kitchen and they look really nice, but they were done professionally. Any help is appreciated.

And my response:

End grain is one of those things that can really bite you in the butt if you don’t prep your projects properly. Many times, you finish sanding and everything looks and feels great! But then you apply the finish and all of a sudden your project looks like it was made from two different woods! The end grain soaked up so much finish/stain that it now appears to be a much darker color. Since the end grain is on a different face, where shadows can sometimes play tricks on the eye, you can usually get away with this color discrepancy and few people will ever notice. But there are some areas where this end grain issue is much more obvious and you absolutely must take precautions.

It really all comes down to sanding prep. End grain will always soak up more finish than face grain, and the result will be a darker color. But if you sand it to a higher grit, it tends to burnish the surface and limits the absorption of finish. The result is a lighter color that more closely matches the face grain. So if you plan on sanding the project to 180 grit, I would sand the end grain to 320. That will greatly improve the results.

But here’s the catch: end grain does not sand as easily or as quickly as face grain. So you might be wondering, how do I know when I have sanded enough?? Well, if you recall in our recent Keepsake Box video, I explained my system for sanding end grain. Here’s an excerpt for your convenience:

Christopher Schwarz, aka “The Schwarz”, just announced a sweet new feature over at PopularWoodworking.com. Its called Woodworking Now. Its a huge collection of hand-picked articles from Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine from the last 10 years. You can browse the collection by topic or project, or even use the search to find the exact article you’re looking for. This is a great alternative to buying full back issues and makes a lot more sense in this brave new “on demand” world. So check it out if you get the chance.

And I can’t mention “The Schwarz” without reminding everyone that we have our super sweet “May the Schwarz Be With You” t-shirts available. You can pick one up in The Wood Whisperer Store.

Now if you read just about any finishing book, you’ll come across one of those handy charts that compares the key properties of different finishes (usually abrasion, heat, and moisture resistance). These charts can be incredibly helpful, but nothing is more eye opening than a simple, practical, home-brewed test! Am I crazy for disliking the oil & wax finish??? To answer that question, I decided to make up a few sample boards and run a little experiment of my own.

I took 4 scrap pieces of baltic birch plywood and finished each one with different materials. My assumption is that if you are considering oil & wax as a finish, you are probably a fan of that “close to the wood” look. So the film finishes were applied very lightly in an effort to keep everything consistent. Here’s how I treated the samples:

BLO (boiled linseed oil) Only – I sanded the board to 320 (for oils, I like to go a little higher than usual to help promote even absorption). I flooded the board with BLO and let it soak in for an hour. I then wiped off the excess with a clean cotton rag and let the board dry in the warm Arizona air for the entire day and overnight. The next day, I repeated the application process. I did this for a total of three applications.

BLO/Wax – I treated this board exactly as above, only after waiting about 4 days after the final oil application, I applied two coats of paste wax and buffed it to a very pleasant sheen.

BLO/Shellac – I gave this board the same BLO treatment, but instead of wax after 4 days, I gave it two coats of Bullseye SealCoat (2lb cut).

Varnish Only – Sanded to 180. This board received three light coats of Arm-R-Seal satin with sanding in between.

When it was all said and done, each board (with the exception of the BLO-only), had a nice, natural-looking satin appearance. The BLO-only board was dull, as one would expect.

So now for my not-so-scientific test. I wanted to simulate a spill of some kind. In this case, I used a fairly concentrated solution of Transtint Dark Mission Brown in water. I placed a quarter-sized puddle of dye on each board, and let it soak. Let’s pretend this is soda, coffee, wine, or maybe even some delicious hot cocoa (we ARE entering the holiday season you know). After 5 minutes, I wiped away the excess dye and then scrubbed the surface with a damp rag. Here are the results:

The BLO-only sample looks………well……it looks like a bird took a poo on it. The dye seeped into the grain and through capillary action, traveled well beyond the original location of the dye. A stain like this would be very difficult to repair. And if the project is made from plywood, you’ll most likely burn through the veneer before you completely clean up that stain.

The BLO/wax board clearly fared better. The wax does a decent job of preventing complete absorption of the dye and the spread was fairly limited when compared to the BLO-only board.

The BLO/shellac proved to be reasonably protective. A small amount of staining is present but it doesn’t seem like the dye penetrated far enough to travel through the grain. The staining is generally limited to the shellac film, and never really touches the wood. This would be a very easy repair.

And finally, we have the varnished board. Boring right? Honestly, there just isn’t anything to look at. The varnish completely blocked the dye from absorbing into the wood fibers.

Really there was nothing surprising here. Film finishes simply protect the wood better than non-film finishes. But deciding what finish to use on your next project depends on a number of factors, and protection from spills is only one of them. So try to pick the finish that suits the project at hand as well as your personal tastes.

What is my take on this? Personally, I am a big fan of the wiping varnish finish. Just take a look at my DVD, *wink wink*. You can apply just a coat or two to get that close to the wood look and feel, or you can slap on six or seven coats for the ultimate in protection. If you like the deep amber hue that BLO brings to the party, why not start with a single coat of BLO, and finish by top-coating with your favorite varnish? Or maybe compromise and use a Danish Oil or even a home-brewed oil/varnish blend. But when it comes to my projects, the time it takes to produce a BLO finish, coupled with the overall lack of protection, puts it smack dab at the bottom of my preferred finishes list.

Now one other thing that I must mention is repairability. Unfortunately, varnishes are not as easy to repair as other finishes. Shellac, lacquer, and BLO can all be sanded down and re-coated with excellent results. But with varnish, sanding too much can result in witness lines if you burn through one layer and expose the one beneath. So if you are repairing a varnished surface, you really have to take it easy. Fortunately, the increased durability of a varnished surface means you are a lot less likely to damage it.

So like many things in woodworking, its a balance and a compromise. But ultimately, its your project and your shop, and you are the boss. So choose whatever finish tickles your fancy. But if you want a truly durable surface, you should definitely give a film finish strong consideration. And of course, clean spills quickly and encourage the use of coasters!!

The rain finally ceased long enough for me to apply the finish on a knife block I made for my daughter and new son-in-law. I’m in my second year of woodworking and this was my first attempt (and could very well be my last) in spraying lacquer. The base is made from scraps of hard maple and the fingers are made of cherry. Two coats of sanding sealer and three coats of lacquer were applied and removed and applied again at least three times before I decided to either hand it over to my daughter or roast marshmallows over it. My photography is as bad as my finishing techniques, so hopefully it helped to hide some of the flaws. I appreciate all the information from you and the people who have shared their projects on The Wood Whisperer, as most of what you see was acquired knowledge from your website.

Check out Phil’s website. He makes a few cool items like the Picnic Stick and the Soda Skirt.

I should preface any description of my block with my credentials. This is the first project I have ever done that involved some form of joinery without screws or nails. I started out with every intention to build the block just as “The Schwarz” had. My first mistake was in the layout. Maybe a carpenter’s pencil was not the best marking instrument (joking). I also did not use a marking knife on the first pass, and I experienced a great deal of tearout. I used the jigsaw blade recommended and a fence, but this was not adequate. I experienced a huge amount of deflection from the blade, which led to unsightly joints. Then I tried to figure a way to salvage the project and dadoes were my solution. A live Guild session a while back helped me finish my router table which I had not used yet. I picked up some curly maple from Bell Forest for the body of the block (utilizing my Guild discount of course). I figured it was a good time to try it out. I did not like the look of the finished piece so I decided to add the base. It was a scrap piece of paduak with a slight chamfer on the edge. I had an extra bag of bamboo skewers so I decried to add some reinforcement to the dadoes. I simply dropped some skewers in a small cup with some old dark mahogany Minwax for a day then pulled them out to dry. So that is where the dark colored dowels came from. I finished the piece by popping the grain as shown in “Pop Goes the Maple” with SealCoat and Dark Maple Transtint. Followed up with four coats of Arm-R-Seal. The block did not end up like I originally planned, but I enjoyed the process. Thanks again for all of the help and late night emails.

I’ve really been enjoying your videos. I appreciate that you take time to talk about pitfalls and how to avoid them. Thanks for the effort.

Every shop I ever see has lots of room, great tools, sturdy work table, and a dust collection system. I wish I had one too. How about featuring a guy like me who is limited to part of a one car garage? All of my heavy power tools are on two wheeled carts. When I want to cut or plane wood for a project, I have to move the riding mower outside. Then I roll the carts around or move them outside. My work table is two saw horses or my work bench. Most of my power tools are Craftsman which suits my purposes. This sure isn’t a great shop but it’s all I can do for now. It’s not easy to make anything and takes a lot of determination and sometimes good weather.

As Don’s shop illustrates, workshops come in all sizes, filled with tools from the Harbor Freight Specials to the latest in fancy Euro machines. As woodworkers, we are just fascinated by other people’s setups! So share your shops with us. We would love to see your ingenious ideas for tool arrangement, storage, and mobility.

I originally learned of this style of knife block from this site. While reading the comments on his page I stumbled across this site (there are some nice pieces in there) and that was when I decided I needed to make one of these myself.I used Sketchup to get some ideas down and then made a quick prototype to ensure that the knives would stay in place with a 45 degree angle and to ensure that the size looked right in the kitchen.

I’ve used Maple and Walnut on this piece, finished with a couple coats of Watco’s Danish Oil, I’ll be applying two coats of poly or varathane in a couple days. There are over 1800 skewers in the main section alone. The bottom section is for steak knives and as a last minute addition I decided to add the slot for a pair of scissors.
I had grossly underestimated the amount of fiddling around that walnut trim was going to cause. If I were to make another one of these I think I would simplify the design, maybe use nicer wood rather than try to design interesting elements into it. I really struggled with all the miters, cutting them accurately was easy enough but getting them to stay in place while clamping was a real challenge (and I really don’t like challenges or surprises after I’ve applied glue to wood).