xmas building

Rob wrote:snip>Need to think of something unique to make the the wife.

Nothing interesting or unique, but I have spent the morning milling up components for a couple of Adirondack chairs for a guy at work to give his mother for Christmas. It has been especially enjoyable since I have been using my new Bosch jigsaw. What a revelation it has been!

Dick Durbin

I'm building a few of my gifts for the first time this year. I'm nearly done with a simple knife block for my mom, out of walnut, quilted maple and ash. It's a pretty simple design: five 4/4 boards with shallow dados carved in them for the knife slots and then face glued into a block with the maple on the outside like this: M-W-A-W-M plenty of exposure for the maple faces. I'll post some pics when it's done, I'm just waiting on a set of cabinet scrapers I ordered to arrive so I can finish the maple.

For my sister and her daughter I'm making matching jewlery boxes of out bloodwood and soft maple. Haven't quite settled on the exact design yet other than that I'm using finger joints. I'm starting work on the prototype box this weekend (which will be a belated wedding gift to my boss) so we'll see how that goes.

Everything is made completely with hand tools, since that's all I have. If this goes over well I'll probably make a habit of this over the years. I know I'm having more fun than I wood shopping for gifts :->

Cheers,

Josh