This project holds special meaning for me as it is a wedding present for my oldest child; my daughter, Chelsea. I made a cradle for her when she was born and as she transitions into to this new time in her life, I thought a bed was a fitting gift. I built what is commonly referred to as a pencil post bed. It gets its name from the tapered octagons on the posts. This one is a copy of a period piece from the 19th century. The tiger maple I used comes from Good Hope Hardwoods in East Pennsylvania and is a traditional choice for this type project.

The construction was a classic hybrid “power/hand” tool exercise where I used the bandsaw, the shaper, and the mortiser for the base roughing out of the project. Most of the time spent was with hand tools – planes, chisels, and card scrapers. Because Tiger Maple has such wicked grain patterns, I used both a Lie-Nielsen 4 ½ with a high angle frog (York Pitch) and a Lee Valley low angle smoother at 62 degrees (50 degree plane iron and a 12 degree bed). A well sharpened card scraper was really a life saver.

I used “Lambs Tongues” on the rectangular transitions that sit between the tapered octagon upper posts and the straight octagon lower posts. Eight lambs tongues on each post – 32 in all. These are carved with a flat chisel.

The finish started with a coat of Honey Amber Maple aniline dye. Following the instructions of Glen Huey’s “Finishes that Pop”, I kept soaking the wood with the dye until it would no longer absorb it. I waited two days for the wood to completely dry and then I used a coat of boiled linseed oil (also per instructions from Glen’s DVD). That really made the rays on the tiger maple stand out. However, I had to wait 5 days for the BLO to dry. I then coated the surface with 4 coats of gloss armor seal followed by two coats of semi-gloss armor seal. That gave me just the right amount of gloss/glow.

When all is said and done I am pleased with the piece. More important, my daughter and her fiancé are very happy with it. Sometimes I really love this hobby….

Here are a few photos of a project I completed in April of 09. It is basically modified from Rockler’s Bunk Bed Plan, made from Maple with a few coats of water-based poly, for my youngest daughter. She has the smaller bedroom and uses the top bunk as a loft space for hanging out and reading (loves to read).

It is mostly to plan but I substituted hardwood dowels for the turned spindles (yankee thrift) and left out a few of the curves. I don’t own a bandsaw so curves are roughed out with a handheld jigsaw and then completed with a pattern bit and my router. The top loft got quickly loaded with her ‘stuff’ including stuffed animals. The photos show the ‘backside’ view too (which is kind of funny, at least I think so).