Good morning!


I have no idea how you stumbled upon this blog, but welcome. I will try to not waste your time, but I offer no guarantees. My name is Mike Donaldson, and I am a woodworker. There, I said it.


My Dad was a real woodworker, and he actually knew what he was doing, so much so that when he passed away in 2011, he still had all of his fingers. After he passed away, I purchased most of his tools from my mother and started working wood


I really don't like power tools. First off, power tools scare the poop out of me. I am pretty sure my table saw is trying to kill me; it has eaten a few of my projects and thrown some wood at me, hitting me a few times. My planer has done that, too. I'm pretty sure it's a conspiracy.


Secondly, I love the calm and the quiet of working by hand; using all of your senses (except taste, wood looks and smells good, but doesn't taste so great).


So there you have it. I now (almost) use hand tools exclusively, and really enjoy it. As you read on I will show you some of my projects, and some of how I did it. So sit back, take your shoes off, put your pants back on, and enjoy the blog.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Some Boxes Come at a Great Risk

So a good friend of mine at work asked me to make him a box.  His brother's birthday was coming up, and they were both avid Risk players.  For his brother's birthday present, he had gotten him a Metal Gear Solid (which I guess is a video game or show or something) limited edition Risk game.  He wanted me to make him a presentation case for the game.  A box in which to put a box, in which is a board game.  He wanted it to be made of Curly Maple, and he wanted mitered corners, other than that, I was free to do as I pleased.


I agonized over the top of the box.  I knew it needed to be a contrast to the Maple, and that it couldn't have much figure because the Maple I used was AMAZING.  I decided to use Cherry.  I cut the pieces and placed them into the top, and realized that I had measured the grain wrong, and it looked like poop.  And I didn't have any extra Cherry to start over.  What to do....I then had an idea, so I got on the computer and printed out a world map.  I then drew the world on the top of the box freehand, and used a gouge to texture everything on the top that wasn't land.  The result was a textured top that hid the poopy grain selection, and offered a subtle tie-in to the game's premise of global domination.
I think it turned out pretty cool.  I plan to use that technique again for future projects.  For the inside, I used the same gouge to make some recesses to put your fingers in to remove the game from the box, and then felt-lined the inside.  He was happy with it.  






It was difficult, but I managed to get the mitered corners just about perfect, but not quite.  It did highlight my need for a shooting board, and I have plans to build one, as will be chronicled in a future post.....


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