Adirondack Chair

This version of my Adirondack chair was fashioned after the "Jakes Chair" for which the plans are available from the Internet.

This chair is wide, stable, and very comfortable. I have made these in cypress, cedar, and pine. The pine chair shown here is painted. These chairs take about 20 hours to complete.

Adirondack Chair

This version of my Adirondack chairs is made from the Veritas design and plans, available from Veritas.

This design is more sleek, tapered, and slim lined. It is a bit closer to the ground, so those who may have some trouble getting in and out of chairs may elect the "Jake’s Chair" instead. This specific chair is made out of cedar and does not require any finish.

Bookcase

This particular bookcase was built as a project in order to test out a new finish I was formulating. The finish on this piece is my mission oak protected by orange shellac. The case is made from red oak.

The detailed molding on the top is what took most of the time to craft. It consists of stacking a crown molding, dentil molding, an ogee, and a half round. The case is enclosed with a face frame and supported by 4 ogee shaped feet, which were roughed out on the band saw and finished with files and scrapers.

Pennsylvania-Dutch Wall Hanging Cabinet

This cherry cabinet is a reproduction of an original made in the late 1800’s. The people of those times used these cabinets to store their valuables for safekeeping.

The hinges are hand forged rat-tail type hinges. The cherry has darkened to a rich brownish-red patina. The finish is linseed oil, followed by orange shellac, rubbed out, and covered by paste wax.

Dining Room Table

This dining room table is oak with walnut trim on the top. The top was fashioned out of an old door I picked up at a garage sale. This door was originally one of the huge office doors in Red Wing Stadium. The finish is varnish after filling the pores of the oak top with pore-o-pak filler.

Shaker-style End Table

This table is made of cherry with an oil and shellac finish rubbed out to a satin sheen.

The front rails supporting the drawer or dovetailed into the front legs and the remaining sides are mortise and tenon jointed to the legs. The drawer is hand dovetailed as well. This was one of the projects I helped instruct at an RWS workshop in 1997.

Federal-style Table

This is a federal style table that I designed based on the top that we had made at an RWS workshop. Frank Pollaro had demonstrated veneering a starburst, so I took the piece home and completed the starburst on the reverse side and edge banded it with some mahogany. The top is veneered with sapele and has mother of pearl drops inlayed in the top. The top also has holly inlayed around the top outside edge.

The sides were vacuum press generated using a curved form and laminating 5 sheets of 1/8" bending plywood with 2 sheets of mahogany veneer. The layout of this bending form was critical in this whole undercarriage coming together. The legs are hand carved out of mahogany and are of my own design, based on a transition of the cabriole leg. The top is French-polished and the rest of the table has about 20 coats of shellac.

Harvest Table

This antique reproduction of an old harvest table currently resides in our dining room. The frame is made of pine with traditional mortise and tenon joinery. Both side aprons have a small drawer used to store napkins and such.

The finish on the base is started with primer, followed by a latex yellow. Some areas were applied with a crackle compound and followed up with 2 coats of barn red latex. The final application was blistered, distressed, and glazed to give the appearance of 100 years of use. The top was made of 8/4 southern yellow pine, which was cut down from 100 year old barn beams found at Pioneer Millworks. They were able to leave much of the original patina of the old wood when machining these planks to size for me. They were expensive, but worth it. I applied a coat of linseed oil, followed by orange shellac, and then followed by several coats of satin sheen varnish. The whole top was then rubbed down with steel wool and mineral spirits.

Shaker Boxes

I did a series of shaker boxes for a while, some in cherry, some in maple. Several styles are shown here including the nested boxes, a lidded box, a swing-handled box, and a few fix handled boxes. These shaker boxes are a joy to make and to give away as gifts.

Nightstand

This nightstand is a simple project to make out of sycamore. Had a lot of sycamore that was not figured and thought I would put it to use in a nice little bedside nightstand. The drawer is dovetailed, the legs are tapered, and the top has breadboard ends also made of sycamore. The whole project is varnished.

Wall Hanging Cabinet

This red painted cabinet is actually a prototype for the cabinet I made out of cherry. I used the less expensive pine to prototype the joinery, the mortising for the lock, and for attaching the stacked crown molding. Once all the construction details were worked out for the "real" thing, my wife wanted to keep this one as well. So primed it and applied a historically correct red paint and rubbed it smooth. The paint job on this took more time than the shellac and oil finish on the cherry model.

Router Table

Several years ago "American Woodworker" did an article on router tables and I based this design on some of the facets of that article. I also added a few of my own touches like the maple edge trim with a dado for applying fixtures. I was playing around with veneering panels at the time so I veneered mahogany on all the doors and drawer fronts. I was also experimenting with an old mahogany finish, which is shown on these panels. This table is equipped with a porter-cable 7518 3HP production style router.

Shaker Boxes

Small Box

Sofa Table

This startling sofa table catches everyone’s eye because of the tiger maple’s extraordinary grain patterns. This table is quite simple in construction however because of the wood’s difficulty in machining and planing the varying angles of the grain, it took some time to complete to my satisfaction. I was able to pop the grain using a light water based amber dye followed by several coats of orange shellac. The whole table is then covered with several coats of lacquer and rubbed out to a high gloss.

Vanity Base Cabinet

This vanity base was constructed from a near perfect slab of 5/4 cherry I found. One of the unique characteristics of this vanity is the joint of the square tenon on the sides into the mortise of the round legs. And no, the applique was not hand carved. This vanity resides in the home of one of the more successful homebuilders in the Rochester area.

Sack-back Windsor Chair

This is the first sack-back Windsor chair I had made. The seat is poplar, the legs and stretchers are maple, and the arm, bow, and spindles are all oak. All parts are made completely with hand tools except the turnings. The bow, back, and spindles are all rived out of an oak log and shaped with a spokeshave and a drawknife. The finish is barn red milk paint followed by several coats of black milk paint, followed by several coats of varnish/oil blend, followed by paste wax.

Workstation

This workstation is in my shop and is used as a sharpening station. A grinder is mounted on the top level and the water stones are located on the lower level which corresponds correctly to my height. These cabinets are made from birch plywood using the “Levine” method of cabinet construction. The door is mounted using European hinges, the drawers are mounted in blum drawer slides with false fronts attached. The finish on sides, door, and drawers is lacquer. The top is a formica laminate.

Barrel Back Settle

This early American reproduction of a barrel back settle is made of pine and finished with red over black milk paint.

Primitive Settle

This primitive settle reproduction features a hinged seat for which blankets, shoes, clothing, etc... are typically stored. This piece is made with white pine, the sides are cut from 1 board 15" wide. The back is floating tongue and groove 5" wide boards. The finish is black over red latex paint.

Entertainment Center

This piece was made from 4 boards of figured cherry. All the verticle styles of the doors, the face frame, and the sides come from a single board so that the grain is continuous and wraps around the piece. The same holds true for the horizontal members. All the panels are cut from one board and bookmatched. The doors open and slide into pockets revealing a shelf subsystem that houses a stereo receiver, a CD player, and a 19" TV. All the pieces of this cabinet were allowed to sit in the sun in front of my shop's window for several weeks which helped to darken and enrich the patina. I used one coat of linseed oil and a week later sprayed on several coats of shellac. I then rubbed it out with rottenstone and followed up with a light coat of briwax.