Maker: Leslea Herber
Location: Coronation, Alberta
My sister has a game called "Qwirkle" and I enjoy it. But I was in a severe car crash last March, and I had a hard time telling a star from a pointed X or a circle, and the X from a plus sign. I also had a hard time telling a square from a diamond shape. I made two versions of the game, where each shape is more distinct from the others. I did find the yellow to be hard to see in certain lighting conditions, so I added a border using a pink fountain pen. I used 1/2" maple for this set and each tile is about 1-1/4" square. I used "Circa 1850 Terra Nova NaturOil" to finish the tiles. They look and feel nice, and soft, and the finish is meant to be used for toys, so it's a perfect option for this game. It took about 5 days to cut the tiles (ripped via table saw, chopped via mitre saw, sanded, painted, oiled) for each set. It was a lot of fussy work, but the end result is quite fun.
Submitted: February 2023
Maker: Mike Nijman
Location: Regina, Saskatchewan
Designed to be simple and low cost. Milled from old 2x10 spruce pieces that having been in the corner of my shop for 7 years. The edging in the table top pieces was pre-done on the router table then simply glued together with clamping, no biscuit joinery. The legs are attached via glue and carriage bolts with additional blocking on the underside. The stringers on the bottom are 1/2" square tube steel painted the same colour as the carriage bolts. Custom mixed Minwax stain and 4 coats of high gloss Varathane finished things off.
Submitted: February 2023
Maker: John Borley
Location: Georgetown, Ontario
Reproduction of a secretary desk made by cabinetmaker John Doan in 1830. The original is now in the Museum of History in Ottawa. Primary woods are Birdseye maple and pine. The finish on the Birdseye is aniline dye followed by an oil/polyurethane topcoat. The finish on the pine case is a gel stain, then same oil/poly topcoat.
Submitted: February 2023
Maker: Mike Floyd
Location: Ontario Canada
My 83-year-old dad made this transport truck with bulldozer and tractor years ago. It is now displayed in his retirement residence where he enjoys showing it off to all who visit. It was made with many different types of hardwoods and designed by my dad. He built the glass display case and painted the clouds behind. Quite a work of art we think and will enjoy in the family for many years to come.
Submitted: September 2022
Maker: Dennis Toth
Location: Smithville, Ontario
This clock, made of red oak, is based on an original from 1860. The clock, which chimes on the hour, stands 7 feet 3 inches high by 26-3/4 inches wide and16-1/4 inches deep. All clock decorations are done by hand. I used a red oak stain to even out differences in the wood and finished with a polyurethane clear gloss with a topcoat of furniture wax.
Submitted: September 2022
Maker: Vern Dueck
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
The bridge I made is modelled after a Leonardo da Vinci designed self-supporting arched bridge. I used structural 4x6 fir beams and red cedar for the bridge deck, rails and post. Joints are birds mouth and through doweled with 1" hardwood (no glue). All the wood was cut from our property that can only be reached by boat. The property is totally off the grid. Electricity is from a water powered Pelton wheel, solar panels and generator backup. I used a Woodmizer and an Alaskan 50" chainsaw to mill the boards and beams. The bridge spans 27' at the base and has a 34' deck. I am in the process of having an engineer give me the load capacity of this bridge. It was a lot of fun building.
Submitted: July 2022
Maker: Gene Gilbert
Location: Jay, Maine
This type of box was used by artists for its mobility. Vincent van Gogh often used these boxes. I made my box from Cherry, Mable, and Walnut. Hardware used was a piano hinge, leather strap, and copper nails. It also has a draw with routed out grooves to hold brushes and paints. The top of box flips up to hold the canvas for the artist to use.
Submitted: July 2022
Maker: Dwayne Johnson
Location: Langdon, Alberta
I started carving these little characters about a year and a half ago. It's a great little hobby and there are lots of excellent teachers online. I enjoy painting them as much as carving them. I also enjoy doing bandsaw boxes, end tables, plant stands and picture frames, but thought I'd submit something a little different.
Submitted: July 2022
Maker: Herman Veenendaal
Location: St. Marys, Ontario
This chest of drawers is made of cherry with poplar as the secondary wood. It's on a 1760s Pennsylvania example and features fluted quarter columns, hand-cut dovetailed drawers, ogee bracket feet and a shellac finish. The chest measures 32-1/4" wide and 32-1/2" tall.
Submitted: June 2022
Maker: Leandre Landry
Location: Memramcook, New Brunswick
This country kitchen cabinet was built for a family friend. It's made of solid pine with wainscoting insert for the doors, ends and back. Doors have mortise and tenon joinery while the cabinet ends were joined using #20 biscuits and glued together.
Submitted: June 2022
Maker: Rick Campbell
Location: London, Ontario
This particular throne is for a very special princess.....my first granddaughter. The little princess is only a week old, so it may be a while before she's ready for her royal coronation. With a small book rack on one side and her own toilette paper roll on the other, this potty chair is all set for Isabelle when she's ready to ditch those diapers. The potty is constructed from wormy maple and is assembled using a combinations of dowels and biscuits. I used my CNC laser to create a masking tape stencil for the inlayed illustration and message on the seat back.
Submitted: June 2022
Maker: Barry Shell
Location: BC
I first saw this design in an art piece by Ai Weiwei (https://bit.ly/3HcBZQy) where he had about a hundred of these all connected together. The trick to make this is to prepare several special angled measuring aids at 11 degrees and 30 degrees. All joints are mortise and tenon done with a bandsaw and a drill press.
Submitted: June 2022
Maker: Ross Riddy
Location: B.C
My daughter designed her first tattoo and years later had it covered with another. I had an old photo and blew it up on a piece of cabinet birch . The inlay consists of 37 pieces of fir burl arranged as best I could to look like a continuous piece . Finished with a flood coat of epoxy .
Submitted: May 2022
Maker: Andy Levine
Location: Travelers Rest, South Carolina
I came up with a unique, one of a kind box for my pastor and his wife for Christmas. The box and legs are Japanese Oak and white oak. Top and handle are spalted oak. Trim is brass. Box joinery is glued miter and legs are attached with CA glue. All my projects are reclaimed, resawn or repurposed materials which cost me nothing but time.
Submitted: May 2022
Maker: Martin Martin
Location: Woodside, New York
This bench was made in a way to avoid conventional stretchers, supports and the like. The legs, oak with mahogany inlay, is attached to the top with through mortise and tenon joints that are hidden. It is remarkably strong and stable.
Submitted: May, 2022
Maker: Gary Kunz
Location: Salt Spring Island, British Columbia
This cabinet is made of plum wood with live edge bark details. The knob is ebony. I dadoed the inside shelves to the sides and used a sliding dovetail to hold the bottom shelf. The glass in the door is handmade by a glass artist. For the finish I used a hardwax oil.
Submitted: May 2022
Maker: Greg Guertin
Location: Norfolk, Virginia
I built this urn for a friend who was retired US Army veteran of the Vietnam war. I used black walnut for the sides and bottom as well a small strip of curly maple on the panel to display the name plate. On the top I used two pieces book-matched crotch black walnut and a piece of curly mahogany for the cross. Finish is stain filler and four thin coats of lacquer.
Submitted: April 2022
Maker: Allan Cusworth
Location: Langley, British Columbia
These daffodils were turned on my woodturning lathe. They made of Western Big Leaf Maple, finished with Acrylic paint and spray lacquer. They mounted on a piece of 1/4" dowel that was coloured with a green bingo dauber and sealed with nitro-cellulose sealer to stop the water based colour from rubbing off. The angle of the stems were made by cutting a 50 degree angle close to one end and re-gluing with epoxy it at an angle. The pistols were added when gluing the flowers on to the stems.
Submitted: April 2022
Maker: Terry Mader
Location: Battersea, Ontario
This table was made with 4-foot wide slabs of spalted maple that I cut and air dried in the barn. The trim and legs are made with makore. The grid pattern is a sub inlay of purpleheart. To finish this project I put 3 coats of teak oil and a top coat of clear gloss spar urethane.
Submitted: Nov 2021
Maker: Chris Smith
Location: Grande Prairie, Alberta
This oilfield bed truck replica took 6 weeks to complete. ,It's made from walnut, oak, cherry, aspen and acacia. I made this from a couple of photos and included as much detail as I could. Every piece was made by hand - there are no CNC parts at all. All parts are movable, including tires that turn, front steering in quad, doors, engine hood, steering wheel, hydro levers and break pot arms. The CAT C15 engine, transmission, drivetrain, driveshafts and universals all move like the real ones. Poles, wenches and kickers out the back end (used when positioning the drilling rig components) are fully working as well. The rig was sanded to 800-grit and then 2 coats of sand seal and 4 coats of finish were applied.
Submitted: Oct 2021
Maker: Pete McKay
Location: Toronto, Ontario
I was inspired to submit after seeing the Book/ Curio Shelf by Troy Chelsberg. Not because my woodworking is up to his level but because of his and my use of "junk". The coffee table is made of the left over picket sign sticks from the Ontario teacher strikes of January 2020. They are your very basic pine, I believe, and wouldn't even do much for you in a fire but gave me one more opportunity to be creative. Lots of glue and poly but no hardware. I'm a local Union leader and now have it in my office.
Submitted: Aug 2021
Maker: Mark Brown
Location: Gananoque, Ontario
Wood:Wenge, Pauduc and Quilted Maple. Size: approx 20" x 12" x ¾" Joinery: Waterproof Glue, Tightbond III and #20 & #10 Biscuits Construction: (Readers Digest version) Cut strips fm maple and wenge to make the guitar "neck" and glued/clamped. Then cleaned up/dimensioned neck, pauduc and wenge bds using Hand tools, Planer and table saw. Glued all pieces and ran through planer once more. Used template to draw guitar shape and cut out with my bandsaw. Drilled out W1/2"x D1/4" for L3/4" legs. Sanded fm 120 grit, 150 grit, 180 grit and final 220 grit. Added legs and Routed out hand grips. Finished with a high quality food-safe oil. About 10 -11 hrs shop time.
Submitted: Aug 2021
Maker: Craig Kosonenm
Location: Canada
For this simple nightstand Craig put a shelf above the drawers so books and other items could be stored within reach, but not clutter up the top. It’s made out of cherry with poplar for the drawer slides. All the panels are resawn, bookmatched cherry. The drawer fronts were also resawn from the same piece of cherry to get a nice grain match. Craig turned matching knobs on his lathe.
Submitted: August, 2021
Maker: John Allison
Location: Gore Bay, Ontario
My first intarsia project is from a Judy Gale Roberts pattern. I used Burnt Ash, Spanish Cedar and Western Red Cedar, and finished Mr. Wabbit with Old Master’s Poly Gel. I learned a lot along the way and I’m looking forward to my next project.
Submitted: August 2021
Maker: Rob Zakarian
Location: Canada
Rob completed his bedroom set, which consists of a bed, dresser, and night tables, from solid birch and birch plywood. The dresser (shown) was assembled with solid birch tenon and mortise joinery and features 12 full extension drawer slides, and a vertical drawer that holds belts. The bed base also has full extension 24″ drawers to provide extra storage, and the headboard includes an integrated full RGB LED night light. The two floating side night tables attach to the headboard.
Submitted: August 2021
Maker: Terry Mader
Location: Battersea, Ontario
This Black ash coffee table was put together using 12 separate pieces of salvaged black ash that were approximately 4″ thick, 20″ long, giving an overall width of 3 feet. I used a dado blade to groove each board to accept spline tenons. I then drew 1″ grid lines to map out the pattern. I used a router to mill pattern lines to a 3/8″ depth, and used a Foredom and a lot of hand sanding to complete the shaping. To round the edges of outside profile I used a Makita die grinder with different rasp bits. The black lines and white dots are ecopoxy inlaid. The finish is three coats of teak oil followed by 3 coats of clear gloss varathane.
Submitted: August 2021
Maker: Pete McKay
Location: Toronto, Ontario
I was inspired to submit after seeing the Book/ Curio Shelf by Troy Chelsberg. Not because my woodworking is up to his level but because of his and my use of “junk”. My coffee table is made of the left over picket sign sticks from the Ontario teacher strikes of January 2020. They are your very basic pine, I believe, and wouldn’t even do much for you in a fire but gave me one more opportunity to be creative. Lots of glue and poly but no hardware. I’m a local Union leader and now have it in my office.
Submitted: August 2021
Maker: Keith Mealy
Location: Oregonia, Ohio
Approximately 20″ square this marquetry wall plaque is made of black walnut, white oak, cherry, butternut and hard maple. 1″ wide strips of wood are glued up, then cut at 45-degrees. Half the pieces are flipped over to create the pattern, then glued up with offset and overhanging edge pieces trimmed off (which I later used to make the 3 small stars above the frame).
Submitted: August 2021
Maker: Wayne Whalen
Location: Fredericton, New Brunswick
I built this staircase last summer and it was an interesting project. The staircase is made of pressure treated lumber and is suspended on 2” galvanized pipe imbedded in a 10” by 4’ deep cement filed tube. I needed something that took up as little space as possible. The diameter is approximately 6′. The treads are a rise of 7” and the spacing around the diameter is 12”. The treads were made using 2x6s and Gorilla glue. The railing was laminated strips of 5/16” pine and lots of Gorilla glue and clamps in successive glue ups – which was probably the hardest part of the whole project. The treads were quite simple and just slide down the pipe and screw together from underneath.
Submitted: July 2021
Maker: August Baert
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
I removed the carpet from the old stairs, cut off the front bullnose and installed oak plugs where the bullnose was on the stringers. I then made templates of the stairs on paper and transferred them to oak boards. I used a Festool domino to join different sizes of oak. Both sides were rounded with a router. I made the stair treads slightly larger and planed and sanded down to the exact size. I finished the stairs with a dark stained and topcoat.
Submitted: July 2021
Maker: Troy Chelsberg
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
I’m passionate about giving castoffs new life. This shelf is made from a discarded pile of survey sticks and wood left in a field to rot, plus some maple veneer shelving rescued from another garbage pile. This junk – this garbage – has life again. Hopefully it’ll continue to live. The wood is either pine or spruce and maple veneer plywood. Joinery is mortise and tenon, rabbet and dado. The unit measures 10″D x 22″W x 44″H. It’s finished with several coats of linseed oil. I’ve added a hidden compartment just because it’s cool.
Submitted: July 2021
Maker: Chantelle Hall
Location: Stouffville, Ontario
I made this bench for my toddler to see out the window and read. I used 2×4’s for the frame and 2×8 pieces for the top. Joinery is with using glue and screws and a few pocket holes. I finished the bench with hobby boards, quarter round trim and a cushion. The pattern is adhesive shelf liner.
Submitted: June 2021
Maker: Mike Chrapko
Location: Sherwood Park, Alberta
Sorry, no dovetails or tenons on this one, just functionality! The boxes are made of 18mm offshore birch plywood and repurposed clear cedar. The square moldings that join the pieces are rabbeted on two faces and fastened with Kreg joinery – no clamping was required. The hinges are bare metal finished with paste wax and fastened with tee nuts.
Submitted: May 2021
Maker: Mark D. Goldman
Location:
I think it was an idea born from staring straight at an upside down bottle of ketchup. The label was right side up, but the bottle was inverted so that the ketchup would always be at the bottle top when squeezed out. What an idea for glue! If you are like me, getting glue out of the bottle as it gets used up becomes more challenging as the remaining glue diminishes. It is hard to squeeze, takes up time, and comes out unevenly. If you could do what the ketchup and shampoo companies do, that would be wonderful. So, I did it. All it takes is a piece of scrap wood about 2 ½ inches high, by 1 ½ inches wide by about 10 inches long. I drilled three 5/8 inch diameter holes in it evenly spaced, put a couple of flat feet on it, and now my glue is eager to come out when I need it with hardly a squeeze. Another benefit is that I get more glue out of the bottle as it continually seems to have some left long after I might have thrown out the bottle before I made this. Worth the little time it takes.
Submitted: May 2021
Maker: Leonard Bauman
Location: Listowel, Ontario
I made this chest of drawers out of red oak to match the existing bed room furniture. It is hard to match some thing that was stained and aged over a period of years. However it turned out that the customer was pleased with the result. I ended up not staining at all so it will darken some over time.
Submitted: April 2021
Maker: William Swiderski
Location: Sherwood Park, Alberta
Made from 2x stock. The top is glued up from 2x6s, stained and top coated with polyurethane. Electrical conduit was cut for the bars and painted black. All door hardware is shop made. The rollers are from sliding patio doors. It’s made to be easily disassembled using bed hardware from Lee Valley.
Submitted: March 2021
Maker: John Collyer
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
This bench is made from live edge white pine from a tree that fell in a storm on our seasonal home property. I had the wood sawn by a local portable mill. The cross beam is a limb from a large cedar also on the property. The bench is stained using analine dye and sealed with three coats of UV epoxy.
Submitted: March 2021
Maker: Terry Mader
Location: Battersea, Ontario
You are here: Home / Reader photos / Sumac Box Sumac Box By Terry Mader on March 27, 2021 Your magazine and all the good folks that work there did inspire me as well as the awesome work other readers sent in! This Sumac Box was made using wood from a Staghorn Sumac tree I cut and air dried in the barn. The lid is constructed from resawn pieces of sumac jointer planed and glued together, shaped into a lid by hand. The knob is shaped from a piece of Lilac socket joined into the lid with a hop Hornbeam spline. The bowl itself was hand-shaped from one chunk of the staghorn sumac trunk with two round feet socket joined through the bottom of the bowl.
Submitted: March 2021
Maker: Terry Mader
Location: Battersea, Ontario
I enjoyed the Woodstory on Leonard Lee that was printed in the April/May 2003 issue of your magazine. For years I shopped at Lee Valley Tools and was excited when they finally opened a store in Kingston. Woodworking is alive and well in Canada. Thank you Lee Valley Tools!
Submitted: March 2021
Maker: Loren Haas
Location: Kootenay Bay, British Columbia
I made this coffee table for my youngest son and his partner Meghan. It has a removable 3/4″ MDF top and is made of pine . The legs were drawn using a French curve set. It will be finished with General Finishes milk paint.
Submitted: March 2021
Maker: Doug Stephenson
Location: Ontario
This Wishing Well is our own design and was finished last fall in our shop. It’s made of cedar that my wife and I cut and milled. We used Sikens stain to protect it from the elements and black Tremclad rust pain to add a highlight to the project.
Submitted: February 2021
Maker: Kevin Ranta
Location: Gibbons, Alberta
I used nothing but cedar that I milled. There are no mechanical fasteners (no nails, pins, screws). Just good old fashioned joinery and Gorilla wood glue. The finish is just 4 coats of Boiled Linseed Oil. The backing of the parquet cedar strips is solid cedar butt joined together. it was a really fun project to do.
Submitted: February 2021
Maker: Debbie Anne Devigne
Location: Canada
I recently started wood carving and found it was something I enjoyed as well as had a talent for. My husband wanted to build me a woodcarving bench that was portable and he could move out of his wood shop when he was working on other projects He always reads your magazines and I thought I should share his project. It has a angle adjustment and a turntable made of MDF. The sides of the table and drawers are made of repurposed plywood.
Submitted: February 2021
Maker: Mark Baker
Location: Mill Bay, British Columbia
I made this wall piece as a Christmas gift for my wife, who hung it very quickly. It contains pieces of ash, cedar, black walnut, teak, white oak and cherry that were scraps from various other projects made over the past year.
Submitted: Januaray 2021
Maker: Bill Los
Location: Listowel, Ontario
I wanted to make an oil lamp that looked like a candle. The candlestick is turned out of walnut and finished with Tung oil along with a hard wax coating. The ‘candle’ is birch finished with a flat white stain. I use a glass oil lamp insert from Lee Valley to provide the flame. The handle on the candlestick is a scrap piece of metal that was already painted flat black. I simply hammered it with a ball peen hammer for an antique look, drilled two holes to screw it onto the wood and bent it into shape.
Submitted: January 2021
Maker: Dallas Gara
Location: Calgary, Alberta
The curly walnut rocker has ziricote highlights and back braces. I woodwork in my spare time just for fun. I am inspired by Hal Taylor and Sam Maloof, and I have been building rockers for a little over five years. This is a dramatically different design from what I usually build seeking a lower and more laid back feel. I made the curly cherry rocker with quilted maple back braces late in 2020.
Submitted: January 2021
Maker: Jim Lorriman
Location: Mulmur, Ontario
I mixed black walnut sawdust from the bandsaw with clear epoxy and poured it into a square mold. When it was set I removed the slab from the mold, milled it and cut it into two equal pieces. From there I used a concentric ring lamination method which I have developed over 20 years as a woodturner to make a rough blank for this bowl. After turning and sanding the bowl was very porous. I filled the holes with white epoxy and after it set, sanded the bowl. A couple of coats of food safe finish and there you have it! It is 10.75″ in diameter by 3.625″ tall.
Submitted: January 2021
Maker: Joe Attard
Location: Port Stanley, Ontario
I used up some leftover pine to build this doll crib. A quick project (`20 hrs total) with the lion’s share spent on the finishing. I would likely use a hardwood like poplar, maple or oak next time around as warping of the pine created some challenges. It now takes a prominent place in her bedroom and the drawer is used to store “secret” stuff.
Submitted: January 2021
Maker: August Baert
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
I built this dresser for my granddaughter. It was made out of solid oak. The drawers are made with half blind dovetails. It has a secret compartment at the top and you use a magnet to open. The sides of the dresser are raised panel. It was made using a Festool domino tool, dominos and glue. The only place I used brads was to hold the secret compartment bottom.
Submitted: January 2021
Maker: Diana Frizell
Location: Sidney, British Columbia
This table was made from an old yellow cedar tree taken down in our yard 5 years ago. We saved a slab and have dried it naturally. I’ll be making two end tables and a coffee table from the slab. This is my first effort. I used EcoPoxy resin and the next time will apply two seal coats. It seems I used every tool in the shop to get this flood pour stage complete.
Submitted: January 2021
Maker: Glenn Bartley
Location: Victoria, British Columbia
Here’s the latest creation to come out of my workshop. It’s a bedside table for our guest room and I made it out of a beautiful piece of figured Arbutus wood (the other half of the board I used for the entry bench a year or so ago). One of the issues I had to overcome with this piece was that although the lumber is stunningly beautiful it did have some pretty massive defects in it. The figure is the result of tension in the wood and the grain direction changing all over the place. This tension caused some very large voids to open up in the wood during the drying process. I didn’t think it would look good to just fill them with epoxy and bowties wouldn’t have really made much sense either as there weren’t cracks to hold together. I decided to inlay some geometric shapes over the voids and make it a feature of the piece. I’m calling it the “Triangle Side Table”. For the pull I wanted to stick with the triangle theme so I made it look like a triangle stuck in to the wood. The pull and all of the inlay are made from Jarrah. The drawer is also made from a straighter grained piece of Arbutus. I used half-blind dovetails at the front of the drawer which were a bit challenging in this very hard and highly figured wood. But I’m happy with how they turned out. I wanted to keep the base simple and I originally turned some legs to make something similar to the round table I just made for our living room. But when I put it together it didn’t look right at all. Back to the drawing board I went and came up with this even cleaner look using Black Walnut. I think with such a crazy piece of wood the base just needed to be as simple as possible.
Submitted: January 2021
Maker: Christopher Sebzda
Location: Mississauga, Ontario
At the 2017 Hamilton Woodworking show, I had the good fortune to meet one of Canadian Woodworking’s representatives. Well, he definitely convinced me that that I should not only subscribe to the magazine but that I should also submit some pictures of the finished work that was then only in the planning/drafting stage of development. So at long last, after 6 months (including 11 different manual re-drafts before work actually began) I present to you my finished mission style end table. The frame is made of red oak while the top is composed of black walnut, ash and red oak. The three-dimensional design is composed of solids rather than veneers. It stands 21” tall and the top dimensions are 14” wide x 21” long.”
Submitted: January, 2021
Turn this heirloom-quality Christmas ornament for someone special on your list this year.
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