Applying a shellac wash coat.

   This kitchen is getting a stain, so a prefinish is necessary to eliminate splotching.  After sanding the surfaces down, the surfaces will have a consistent surface, which will take the stain evenly.  Labor intensive, but well worth it.  

 

 

 

 

Walnut Showpiece

This piece was built for Abode, a green building supply store in downtown Missoula.  The entire Piece is vennered with walnut, as to conserve precious wood.   I used plywood and Soft Maple as the substrate for the venner.  The walnut is hand harvested, milled and dried.  The pulls are shop made brass post and bail.  The finish is pure Tung Oil, which contains no toxins.  

 

This piece utilizes many different kinds of wood. The brown wood with white striping was salvages from a burn pile. Probably Plum wood. The carcass is Walnut from New Orleans, the bottom drawers are Wenge.

Shown here, my late father Mike Bohman, begins to cut out the relief wedge for this truly massive Red Oak.  The diameter at the base was 42″.  The lumber that this tree yielded will last into the unforseeable future for a woodworker like myself.  It was a heavy experience felling such an enormous tree.

This log took everything the Crawler had in order to pull it up the hill.  My fathers Case 8.50 Crawler was essential for such work.   The road you see had to be built in order to access the trees for this project.

Felling a Black Walnut tree in Chesterfield, MO.  The tree fell down the hill making extraction quite a process.

Here, I’m checking the moisture content of some Black Walnut that has had some time to season.  Most of my wood stock is milled at 10 to 12/4, about 2-3″.  Although milling wood this thick allows me more freedom when it comes time for project planning, it takes much longer to season.  Probably around two years.  The smell of wood in this room is overwhelming.

 After spending some time putting a new edge on my plane iron, I can surface the raised panels for the doors that are under way.  Raised panel doors are among my favorite things to build.  They represent the marriage of several woodworking elements, and allow the builder to interpret them loosely.  This door style might be referred to as “Krenovian” after the master craftsman who popularized it.  www.jameskrenov.com

centering pin

This detail shot of a mortise and tennon door shows the pin which keeps the panel centered within the rails.  Over the course of the year, the panel will expand and contract depending on the season.  It shrinks in the dry winter months and swells in the hotter humid months.  Since it is now winter, I shaved down the sides of the panel to anticipate swelling later.  This technique in door construction assures that the door panel will keep the proper reveal over the course of its life while adding a thoughtful element to its construction.  I like to take it one step further by waxing the top and bottom of the panel to allow easy movement within the dados of the rails.

product testing is always a must