LawrenceofPA

Bench Cookies sound cool. BTW, this is Ian.

I really enjoyed this video, since it validates the way I've been doing it. Before I switched to waterstones, however, I spent a lot of money on Klingspor wet/dry adhesive-backed sandpaper. It works, too, but the waterstones ultimately cost less to use, and I like the result better.

Now -- I need a sharpening jig for a skew chisel! What a pain.

I made a simple inlay band described in "Creating Beautiful Boxes With Inlay Techniques," by Doug Stowe. I also inlaid a box with banding I bought at Rockler. The difference in appearance is unbelievable. The hand-made banding looks like real wood; the store-bought banding looks -- well, store-bought.

It's also a great way to reduce about 5 bd ft of nice wood to a little stack of strips.

I'd love to learn more about this, since I seem to be unable to crack these puzzles myself.

Larry

Gorgeous. I'm curious about the epoxy inlay. Did you use something like a pin router to excavate for the inlay?

Nice work.

Larry

this is really scary. if i were to have a beer with this guy, it would be to encourage him in the strongest possible terms to get some training or take up another hobby -- like needlepoint.

I built my first bench about 2 years ago and used Doug fir 4x4s for the top, because I couldn't find anything else that was relatively clear. That sort of killed the $175-bench concept. But it's nice and heavy, and not too hard to plane flat. I'm also using this top to learn how to plane. My No. 5 and No. 7 seem to be the right combo.

As has already been mentioned, a local kiln posted an ad on craigslist under materials. He has KD poplar, oak, cherry, pine, and others for 1.50-3.00/bf. Also found a yard in eastern PA that had a sale on 4/4 cherry shorts, and bought 100 bf for a little over 2.20/bf. sure beats the $3.00+ I paid at home center for mediocre poplar!