I wanted to make my parents something special for Christmas this year, but I wasn’t sure what until I visited them over Thanksgiving. While walking through the living-room I noticed that the only photo they had of me was several years old, and was just an impromptu shot taken at a park. After returning home I talked with a friend who is professional photographer, and set up a time to get some quality photos taken.
With the actual photos taken care of, I set to work on a custom frame. I Wanted the frame to be special, so I decided to use Wenge as the main wood & Gaboon Ebony for the keys. I’d read that Wenge was difficult to work with, and it didn’t disappoint. It planed well, but routing the edge profiles was nerve racking. Unlike other woods, you must route Wenge with the grain, or you will get horrible blow out. The Ebony on the other hand was a dream to work with, It planed exceptionally well despite its density. For the finish I went with two coats of my go to Danish Oil.
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Wenge Frame
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Gaboon Ebony key
I’ve been so busy with Christmas preparations that I forgot to post a shot of the finished wine rack. I swear I finished it last weekend. 
The client loved it, and was really please that it has a slight nautical look. As I had hoped it was a lot easier to make than mine due to having only 2 mortises instead of twelve.
The wine rack I made for the kitchen, has gotten a lot of praise from my friends and coworkers. One coworker commissioned me to make one for her to give as a Christmas gift. Mine is was to complicated to make for a reasonable price, so I designed this one.
I freely admit I’m an accuracy addict, when I’m milling stock my calipers are never more than a few feet away. The only problem with my calipers, is that they are graduated in thousands of an inch,and while I know some of the decimal to fraction conversions I’m not in the shop often enough to memorize all of the useful ones. Fractional calipers can be had, but they are usually only graduated in 1/64ths and in my opinion that’s just not fine enough, so I never purchased one.
Fast forward to black Friday, and Berland’s House Of Tools. if you have ever been to Berland’s, you know it’s more of a contractors tools store. I wasn’t expecting to find anything spectacular, but while browsing the layout & measurement section I came across the little gem below. When I saw this baby i lit up like a 5 year old on Christmas day. A fractional caliper graduated in 1/512ths, yes please.
People loved the tea candle holders I posted last time, in fact I was actually commission by several friends to make some for them. I learned an important thing while making them, You have to be really careful pattern routing end-grain Purpleheart.
Cherry, Bubinga, & Purpleheart tea candle holders.
