WoodSmith & Daughters

Realised I never shared any photos of this finished memory keepsake box!
Beautiful pink wellingtonia, dovetailed joints and a live-edge lid. What could be more befitting for a tree surgeon’s wedding gift?

COMPLETE!

It’s nice to be able to do projects for our own home sometimes.

2 spalted sweet chestnut country-style benches. Somewhere around 20 hours to produce. Height is also adjustable by almost 2”, so the kids can have theirs slightly higher.

So close to finished. Both now assembled. Today’s warm weather gave me the opportunity to try this new varnish from Manns.

Final photos to follow tomorrow!

Dry fitting the first bench together. Lots of progress today!

Kitchen bench project is in full swing. Huge slab of chestnut milled down, and the bench tops are ready. X-legs are underway.

Working on another wedding gift for someone! Going to feature dovetailed joins, a live-edge lid, and and some gorgeous pink!

COFFEE TABLE FINISHED!

Edges rounded off, and oiled and legs fixed on.

Making a lot of sawdust on Sunday!
The coffee table is coming together, and had a delivery of chestnut and wellingtonia.

What started as a split slab of ash is starting to take shape as a coffee table. Staves all milled to the correct width and thickness - just need to wait for the glue to defrost before moving onto the next stage 🥶🥶🥶

Robin house is complete!

Turning simple products high-end.
A couple of days work milling this spalted ash, and framing up a little robin house. Basic structure is finished, just needs a final sanding and polishing.

Another repair this week - there’s a certain irony when someone else breaks your marital bed whilst you’re away on honeymoon!

Easier to replace the entire central brace, added new legs and everything matched.

A small but delicate repair job I undertook recently, to this bureau which had been damaged during a burglary.

Another kitchen play tower coming among.

Progress on the money box today: backplate cut, planed flat & glued in place. Always clean up after you finish!

Making birthday presents today - the beginnings of a piggy-bank.

A fun little afternoon project, from some off-cuts of ash.

Another little project finished for a happy customer. Milled from solid ash.

Another wedding present for my sister is this keepsake box.
Dovetailed pine body with cedar feet & lid, leather handles and brass hardware.

So excited to be able to finally share this project with you. The first of two wedding presents was this bespoke dining table & matching bench, made from solid ash.

After / before

Just putting the finishing coats on this 3-wood mallet. Burr elm middle, spalted (and slightly woodwormy) beech outer, and a splined ash handle.

Ash dining table & matching bench are nearly finished!

Work on the dining table continues. Jointed each panel with this mammoth Trend Tool Technology router bit in the Triton Tools UK router so the edge faces are all perfectly square.

A lot of biscuit joints and a gallon glue later, it is starting to resemble a table top.

Dining table starting to come together…. all the bark has been removed, and lengths milled down to uniform thickness.

Fresh blades on the planer this morning, sheltering from the snow.

Planed and thicknessed the boards down to about 50mm; will leave them to settle for a week or 2 before taking it down to a final thickness closer to 40mm.

Rough-cut to size for a bit more acclimatising before milling.
This is the first step of a big project to make a bespoke dining table.

Now THAT’S a big slab of timber! 3.5 metres of ash, ready for my next project.

Yes, it is a bit heavy.

Really pleased with how our oak dovetails have turned out!