u/nberke

My first bit of furniture! I present to you, Redditors, a three-legged stool made of a single big box store Douglas Fir 2x4 (and a teeny, tiny bit of walnut), loosely following the Chris Schwarz plans for a tall stool (this is shorter, no stretchers, and round tenons instead of tapered. Also... just kinda guessed at the leg angles).

Tools used: Gyokucho ryoba saw, Jorgenson #4 plane, janky 70s Craftsman Jack plane. And yes, a power drill with spade bit, so not 100% hand tools. The round tenons were cut with chisels, paring away, testing fit, paring, testing, paring.... it took a while. Fun stuff. Finished with Danish oil and wax paste.

This whole project was so much fun to do as a beginner (I've only built boxes before this), The feeling of taking a $4 2x4 and dimensioning it to something refined is... powerful. When I got my leg blanks all square and smooth and they looked like beautiful, riftsawn straight grain.... chef's kiss.

My favorite parts were beveling and chamfering the seat, and making the legs octagonal and tapered. I was most nervous about the wedges in the tenons. Every test piece split and I just prayed that the counterpressure from the mortise would keep it together, and thankfully it did. My one big regret is the board layout in the seat... I didn't think the knot would look so much like a poop smear from a distance. Womp womp.

While this was meant to be a shop stool, it's currently serving as a side table next to my couch... until I build one!

Feedback welcome. I'm here to learn!

Making my first bit of "furniture" - a staked three legged stool. No big deal, right? I'm mostly a (very novice) hand tool woodworker, but planned to drill my round mortises in the seat with auger bits in a power drill. Purchased a diablo auger bit set. Bought a new hand drill with a 1/2 chuck to accommodate it (Ryobi HP).

I just put in the bit, grabbed a piece of scrap, put another piece of scrap behind it, aimed for a 15 degree angle and gave it a go.

Results were not pretty.

I can't find much online about how to get the best results here. I obviously want as clean a cut as possible as this will be a visible surface.

Tips? Thanks in advance.

I bought this 4x4 of soft maple turning stock to resaw for various small projects. I need about 1/4 inch of it to line a box.

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I did this for the first time recently with purpleheart and the face I did ended up being a bitch to plane and was brittle as all hell. I did another face, 90 degree to it, and it was glorious to plane. But I can't figure out the logic - is there some rule about the grain orientation to choose the right face to resaw from?

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This is all resawing with hand tools, by the way.

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Thanks in advance!

I've got this chip in my iron (2, actually). I've resharpened it until it disappeared, but it keeps coming back in the same exact spot.

At first I thought maybe there was something about how I was using my shooting board that keeps causing me to chip it (it's right where the blade clears the board and meets the wood I'm shooting.) But I don't think that's it.

Could it be that I haven't sharpened enough and there's some micro chip left that is just eroding faster? Do I have to grind the entire edge flat and then make a new bevel? I don't have a grinder - just some basic diamond stones.

Thanks in advance!

I started this hobby by accident. I took a woodworking class to get comfortable with power tools so I could fix things at home. I said to my friend, "I'm not really interested in being one of those guys making pointless boxes with vintage hand tools."

A year later, I haven't fixed a damn thing around the house but have gotten a bit obsessed with making small boxes with hand tools. Honestly? It was getting a thin shaving with a hand plane I got at a garage sale that hooked me. They should bottle and sell that feeling.

Never built much beyond IKEA style furniture. These are my first 9 attempts at dovetails, which are pretty much my first 9 attempts at making anything.

Nicer boxes are walnut and cherry, finished with Danish oil and minwax paste wax (you'll see on one box I learned not to use "natural" color wax on walnut). Everything else poplar and pine and one red oak pencil case my daughter went to town on. Tools were mostly a cheap ryoba, dozuki and kataba, Jorgensen planes, narex's cheaper chisels, taytools mini router plane.

Happy for my first share to this community after long time lurking and learning. Thanks, and feedback welcome.

Edit: photos seemed to have uploaded out of order. Hey, maybe it's a fun game to see if you can figure out the order they were completed!