A friend wanted a custom made domino set. At first, I was leery of using wenge because it is so brittle, but with a lot of patience, sharp tools, and plenty of painter’s tape, I pulled it off. The lid and base frames are connected with box joints with the top and bottoms glued on. I added a small cocobolo lid catch by mortising into the lid. As for the dominoes, I cheated a bit by using a template from Rockler. I fabricated the wenge plugs by making a template of 5/8 holes into MDF, then routing the holes into solid wenge. After that, all I had to do was pop them out of the wenge and bevel each one to fit snug in the curly maple. I routed a dividing groove with a 1/16″ bit and filled it with walnut Famowood. Since wenge is so pricey, I planed the piece I used for the hole plugs down to fabricate the box. I added a curly maple inlay of a chicken foot to the lid per customer’s request. The finish on the box is 6 coats of poly/oil wipe and 5 coats of semi gloss spray lacquer for the dominoes. Overall, I’m very proud of the piece… apart from a little filler around the box joints, it’s pretty flawless. The whole project would have been much easier if I’d taken Marc’s advice and used walnut instead of wenge, but where’s the fun in that?

So a couple of months back I emailed you asking ‘how the h*** do you finish wenge?’ You responded with a brilliant answer which I followed some of, and sorta “adapted” the rest. Here is my finished Asian “inspired” hall table. Its mostly wenge, (the top is from an 8/4 slab that I resawed (took nearly a bloody hour on a 14″ Delta with a riser block…) The sliding dovetails, the floating table top supports and the leg stretchers are cherry. I finished it with Benjamin Moore Interior Wood Finish, Low Lustre Polyurethane (435-00). Thanks for the help by the way: water based poly, my usual choice, looked like mud on a scrap piece, then flaked and peeled off.

This piece was a complete departure from my typical woodworking. Up to this time, all of my pieces have been maple and cherry, and very much the simple forms of someone who is Shaker inspired and admires the work of folks like Christian Becksvoort. I took a class taught on “Asian hall tables” and decided to spread my wings by trying an exotic wood, and a completely new form with some curved work. The instructor had asked the class to do a simple Asian style table in walnut, but after seeing some of my work permitted me to work independently from the other class members by taking his form, and applying my own expression to the table.

I had some beautiful small pieces of cherry left over from making a bed for one of my daughters, and the use of those pieces for some highlight pieces within the table seemed to make perfect sense. I used the cherry for the sliding dovetail cauls for the table top, and for the through tenons for the table support. Artistically I suppose the use of the cherry ties the project back to my earlier work, but it also provides a visual contrast to the wenge. The slight angle to the joinery between the legs and the table aprons gives the table a slight airiness, and the cloud lifts separate the table top from the rest of the piece. I also softened the legs by using a very slight bevel cut to put pillowing on the legs to bring out the grain and figure of the wenge.

About 4 days before Christmas, I started making a nice little picture frame for a custom piece of art I had made up for Nicole. A gift for a special girl requires some special wood. So I pulled out my best sheets of curly maple veneer and a couple of sheets of home-sawn afzelia wood (thanks for link Logan!) that I received from David Marks. You may find it odd that I decided to use solid maple as the substrate for the frame. I thought this would be a fun experiment, and when the rabbets are cut in the back, there won’t be any unsightly ply to look at (not that it matters that much). Small projects like this are just a great place to experiment with techniques and materials you might not normally use. All the extra effort pays off in the end when the finish hits the wood. KABLAM!!!! The wood just comes to life!

And here are a few still shots of the frame. Its on a yellow wall which isn’t exactly the best background. Some day I will take it down and get some really nice shots.

I didn’t really cover the finishing method in depth, but its the same wiping varnish system I always use. Specifically, its the one outlined in my DVD, A Simple Varnish Finish.

Here’s another great small project for the holidays. Its a small Contemporary Clock. This piece should take about two days to build. And this is another project that can benefit from the batching process. So be sure to make a bunch!

And just to help you along, I did my best to create a working SketchUp file that should be perfectly to scale. Just keep in mind that I am by no means a Sketchup expert, so please give all measurements the “common sense check”. After reviewing the sketch myself, I realized that the width of the center square piece is about 1/16″ off. Rest assured, it should be 3 1/2″. Download the Sketchup File by clicking the link below. And if you haven’t used Sketcup before, you can download a free copy from Google: Sketchup

Download Sketchup File for the Contemporary Clock

To sum up, here’s a basic cut list (also stated in the video):
(1) 3/4″ thick x 3 1/2″ wide x 3 1/2″ long (for the clock)
(4) 3/4″ thick x 1 1/2″ wide x 6 1/2″ long (for the frame)
(2) 1/4″ diameter x 1 1/4″ long dowels

And here are some links to the materials used in the video:

General Finishes PolyAcrylic
Clock Parts

Circle/Grommet Templates This is the plexiglass template kit I used to create the holes for the clock works. Highly recommended!! Circle/Grommet Templates