Walnut or cherry?

stryped · 2006-07-14T13:07:44+00:00

x-no-archive:yesWhich is easier for a newbie to work with? I wont get around to it forsome time because my wife wants me to build her a bookshelf first, butI have a plan for a mantle clock I would like to make for mygrandmother. It calls for cherry but I wondered abotu Walnut. Was notsure if one was better than another to work with wwith my cheap tools.

Jul 14, 2006 23 Replies

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Patriarch 20 years ago

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in news:mO9ug.67274$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com:

I was getting started 5 or 6 years ago, never having built a cabinet, but having just laid out some serious cash for a new Shopsmith. (Yes, I've learned. Money gone.) We wanted an entertainment center for the master bedroom, and so I built one from baltic birch plywood. Too big. Took it apart, and rebuilt it smaller, and more accessible for the not terribly large bedroom. Painted it sage green.

My wife loves it. She shows it off to everyone who comes to visit, even 6 years and who knows how many tables, clocks, boxes and bedframes later. If she wants one in oak or cherry, she's never let me know. When I suggest that I do 'the final', she comes up with more important projects for my time and tools.

Good thing about that prototype. Paint covers a multitude of sins. I'd do it again, no problem. The learning is the fun part. The prototype kitchen cabinets are in the bathrooms and in my garage shop. Someday, maybe soon.

Enjoy your work.

Patriarch

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ray 20 years ago

I will still disagree with you. I do build prototypes, usually from cardboard so that others can see what I have in mind. These are full sized, fully functional pieces. It took me about an hour to build a cardboard rubber stamp cabinet. Some of the prototypes are used until the final product is done. I do test a new technique, but always in the same wood as the finished project because it eliminates another variable. Part of the reason why my workflow is different is that I have the gift of being Autistic. My designs are always fully worked in my brain without drawings, even things like the design and placement of the gears in the acrylic clock and the workings of some of the wooden locks. I can build better from a picture of the final project than from drawings. You work the way that is best for you in your neurotypical fashion and I will do what is best for me. But I think it is self defeating attitude to build a project out of inferior material.

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