Posts in the «natural timbers» Category

• Bottlebrush Tree

In October 2021 my neighbor wanted a Bottlebrush tree cut down and I was interested in the wood. So I offered to cut it down. As you can see, it had quite a lean to it. I was not concerned about hitting the house because it was fully leaning away from the house. I was […]

• Charcuterie Board – Planche?

Back in May 2020, my son made a serving tray as a gift for his teacher and wrote about it here. Fast forward to December 2022 and we get a call from his past teacher offering him his first commission for another one.  Only now we can’t call it a serving tray, we have to […]

• Rustic corner shelf

My mother is a bird fan and several years ago she started collecting some very nicely carved birds.  She is moving into a new place and could use somewhere to display her birds.    I selected a section of a large limb that came from my neighbor’s gigantic ficus tree.   I used an old chisel […]

• Kerfing a live edge joint

I am in the middle of working on a live edge table, but I have the live edges interior to the table rather than at the table edge.  So I have one live edge that needs to join up to another piece of wood.   A lot of woodworkers solve this with a river of epoxy.  […]

• Cypress Stump End Tables

I wrote a while back about the Cypress Stump Console I made from one of the two Cypress trees I had removed in my back yard.  The second stump… the butt really, was a bit shorter.  I thought it would make a good coffee table but we don’t need any more of those.  However we […]

• Cypress Stump Console Table

Back in May 2019 we had two large Bald Cypress trees removed from our back yard.  Steve’s Tree Service  did a great job and they obliged me in my request to have the trunks cut as close to the ground as possible so that I could have some nicely flared stumps for creative woodworking. This […]

• Log Toggle Coat Rack

I have seen a bunch of these flip down toggle coat racks and have been intrigued by the designs.  Modern and unobtrusive.  Toggle a peg down if you need it, up if you don’t. I find them clever, but they are too modern looking for my taste.  So I started imagining one that was based […]

• Rustic Outdoor Lamp Posts

My workshop in FL is still not ready yet, so here is one from a collection of things from my time in NY that I had not gotten around to posting. On our property I needed some outdoor lighting to keep our B&B guests from bumping into things in the dark.  Any of the modern […]

• Wood Properties

Steve Branam at the Close Grain blog just made a fantastic post that covers all the basics and quite a bit more of the Properties of Wood It covers the following wood topics quite effectively: Wood Toxicity and Allergen Safety Hardwood and Softwood Moisture Content and Movement Sapwood and Heartwood Grain Flatsawn and Quartersawn Lumber […]

• Rip Sawing an Old Log
While doing the preparation for building a cedar double chaise lounge, I had collected several old fallen red cedar logs from the forest surrounding our home.  It seemed that one of the logs turned out to be more than my bandsaw could handle (8.5" re-saw clearance) .  The log was close to 14" in diameter.  […]

• Sawing Square to What?

Every time I start a “natural timber” project where logs and branches are used without flat surfaces, I end up dealing with issues related to cutting “square” to something that is round or at least round-ish.   They are seldom perfectly round, and rarely straight.  So when cutting them to length or cutting shoulders for a […]

• Drawshaving Larger Posts

I’ve done quite a bit of work around here using old cedar logs as posts for deck railing, gates and light posts.  The wood is readily available as the forests near by seem full of old dead cedar trees that couldn’t keep up with the oaks and other giants.  When the cedars died, their roots […]

• Round Tenon Maker

When making a swinging gate out of natural cedar timbers for my deck, I had the need to make round tenons on the ends of some cedar branches.  If I was doing a lot of them, it would have made sense to buy a dedicated round tenon cutter that is driven by a power drill.  These […]

• Rustic Wooden Deck Railing

The deck on our log home overlooks the lake. It needed a railing for safety but we didn’t want a railing that would block our view. So we decided to use stainless steel cable railing, but needed the posts to fit the style of our log home. The forest around our home is primarily tall […]