Look what I've found!

 Ahh, extra busy day. Yesterday me and my brother brought my grand grandfather's workbench to my garage. Suprisingly it fit to my car. Although it's a Land Rover I doubted that we would be able to press this huge 2-meter-long table inside. So now, papa is home, or I'd rather say grand grand papa, or better.
 My grandfather told me that only legs of this workbench were made by my grand grandfather, the top was made at least before the World War II as it was found in a house in which they live now after Germans abandoned Wrocław (which was then named Breslau). There is really a big dose of history laying behind it and that makes me even more eager to renew it and use as my own workbench. Passed through the generations.
 On the photo below you can compare it's length to a size of the Mini or the wheel of my car ^^

 And close-ups captured today. The workbench is quite damaged, but regarding it survived the war, was completely under water during a flood in 1997 and stood in my grandparent's cellar for couple of decades it is in suprisingly good condition. It's complete, on the photo it is partially disassembled as I need to fix the vise. Somehow, during those years pressure made by extending table top broke a part of the vise in halves. And of course, woodworms left a lot of signs of their past existence in the wood, fortuantely most parts are made of so thick material that holes and caves made by the worms don't really affect table's durability.

 The top has very complicated structure made during those years of usage. I don't really want to flatten it as it would take a part of it's soul away. I don't need it completely flat, I will use it mainly as a big vise for boards during activites that need sturdy ground.

 I needed to make a damaged part of the vise. On the photo you can see: below - the old part, broken, cut and etc. partially by woodworms, and partially by a humidity; and on the top - new one. I needed to work a lot with a chisel, making only first bigger cuts with a tablesaw.

 The table still needs a lot of work, so don't expect me to suprise you with some new projects or finish those I've been making soon. But I will post some pictures and a description of a completed step stool I've made before. Have a nice day!

OPEN.

Our shop is finally open!

Welcome to my and Julia's newly opened shop!

Live Natural Shop

You can find beautiful artwork made by Julia there, and my hand-made frames, plant press and a notebook-in-bed table. Our offer will expand as we will make more and more things keeping the same sky-high level of work.

Stay tuned!

Szymon.

Framed beauty

A photo of a frame I made about 3 days ago. It's simple, it's pure and elegant. The simplicity of design makes it suitable for almost every interior, yet the grain of oak used to make the frame unveiles the beauty of uncolored and pure wood. It is made of two species of oak, two different shades as you see in the photo.
It fits two A5 paper sheets or five 14x10 photos (the dimensions in centimeters). And has my own assembly system to hold the backing in place. Maybe it isn't really my invention but you won't find it anywhere else.

It will be available to buy today!

Mętlik :)

 Ahh, I have so much to do. Today we start our shop on Etsy. It's name is LiveNaturalShop (if you want to find it, just type it in Etsy's search. I'm finishing the cabinet, but I cannot make the exact description every time I make something new. I'll finish it and then describe and photograph everything. Then if someone needs any information I'll answer any questions (I bet there will be no one :).
 But, here is a photo of something very purely showing the beauty of woodworking. I'm making a small table for my balcony and managed to make it without using any nails, screws or, we'll see, maybe even glue. Everything is held by dowels. Stay tuned.

Description tommorow :)

 Lately, I've been busy. That explains why I haven't finished this post until now. I made couple of things, bought some wood, had some days off. Life. Ok, here's description I was to write 'tommorow' :)

 Below you can see a side of the cabinet, unfinished and a little rough, but that will be sanded until flush. It is attached to the leg by a dado, because it is too thin to make sliding dovetail. A dovetailing bit for my router is wider than the width of the side, it explains why I had to use weaker joint and glue.

 But, in the photo below, you can see routing a groove for a dovetail joint I made to join legst to the back of the cabinet. I had to use stop block as well not to go too far with the dado.

 I had to wax the joint to make it easier to assembly. As it is a dovetail I won't use any glue when I finally assemble it. And I had to round the dovetail to fit the groove made by the router.

 I made the back a little shorter and notched the leg tenons a little. That will lock the mortise and tenon joints and make the cabinet really hard to disassemble. But on the other side I couldn't asseble it to dry-fit as well, because I didn't want to somehow damage the project during disassembly then.

 Metamorphosis :) From a pile of wood to ... a pile of wood shaped to look like a cabinet. Stay tuned.

Today.

  Hello! I had a lot to do today. Unfortuantely I haven't finished the sides of the cabinet. I made only two of them, and the third, biggest one lays in the garage as glue didn't dry yet. I almost destroyed my table saw when I was resawing the last of my big logs, it's a little underpowered for such operations. Fortunately, it still works. So, yesterday I finished my work having the top and four legs made. Ahh, now I realised I didn't capture routing grooves in the legs. I needed to make dadoes to fit the side walls of the cabinet. It's critical to remember which leg needs a dado on which side, because otherwise you'll end up with strange ornaments on the project :) After you make the dadoes, which depth was the same as depth of tenons (looking from a side of leg; maybe I'll make some photos of them tomorow), you can cut the sides to the width. If you adjust the dadoes' depth the same as tenons you can now just use the spacing of mortises on the top to adjust your table saw - it helps a lot. I made dadoes in the sides as well to make a shoulder as the sides aren't really flat. It makes them look more rustic, but makes a lot of trouble as well.

  Here is a photo of gluing the back of the cabinet. I managed to glue it in two steps. That will keep it more flat, which is really critical to make the sliding dovetail, which I mentioned yesterday. It wouldn't stay flat, because I don't have more clamps. Only two of the length that would fit the size of the board.

  The two blocks are the ones which I cut to make the sides. I don't recommend it, because you cannot use a thickness planner with such small stock, but it was the only option as I don't have more wood to use.

  Hah, weather today was really weird. It was really sunny and hot, but all of a sudden it started raining. The rain was really dense, but I liked it, somehow it makes me fresh. Then came the Sun and it was sunny again. Yeah, but I wouldn't say the weather was weird if only that happened. Imagine normal weather, little cloudy, but calm sky, no rain, sunny and suddenly a lightning claping so loud that the sound echoed on the sky. And of course, rain :) Even heavier than before and for a while it even hailed. But it was still sunny! Of course, after that came a rainbow, finally. Ok, let's go back to the broject.

  Below, there are the sides waiting for being glued. One with a special forces badge drawed on it :) Cracked imagination. The second photo shows gluing of the back of the cabinet.

  And here is what I finished today's work with. Looks really cute, but that's not all! Stay tuned.

Photo booth

  Another busy day. As I said, or wrote, I'm making another little cabinet. Here are some photos of my project. I began carving these mortises with my router, but then realised I am so underskilled in using it that I carved it manually. I'm very happy for that, because it brings a lot of fun and satisfaction when you finally make joints fitting so tight you could not use any glue to assemble the project.

  I used my chisels, properly sharpened and ready to work. But first I drilled some holes just to get rid of the material inside the mortise, then I made my way to the lines. Only remeber to make it in two steps.  First, cut only two perpendicular sides of a mortise, then put a tenon against the angle you've made and see how much of another sides you have to trim. This way of making mortises allows you to make them really tight.

  In the last photo you can see one of two cracks, which were really a problem as they were on the edge of the cabinet top. Of course I could have hidden them by changing the sequence of boards when I was making the top. But it was only way to make each board match another's grain. I closed the crack with some glue and much of pressure, as shown in the photos below.

  Again, last photo shows the next step I will make tommorow, I will make sliding dovetails to join legs to sides of the cabinet. I don't have the sides yet, but I hope I'll finish cutting and joining them tommorow, so there will be more photos of the project.

  Next photos show some of the things I've made before and didn't photograph yet.

  As you see, I've made a template for the legs in the cabinet. It should allow me to dry-fit the mortises before assembly. But, nevermind, it didn't work, because the shoulder of it's tenon happened to be different than the ones on the real legs. Another funny thing - a chalk holder. I bought a chalk and realised that it will sooner or later crush when used in a garage. I drilled a hole through a beech piece of wood, the hole has to be the same size as the diameter of the chalk stick and then drilled smaller one on the other side that will allow me to slide the chalk out. After that - a little of carving to make it more comfortable in use and voilà.

  Oh, the post gets bigger and bigger. Here is my hammer. I made it from a big piece of oak - to make the head, and smaller board to make a handle. Then carved a handle to fit my hand. It doesn't look beautiful, but is really helpful when I need to assemble things.
  Bellow- a surprise, there is a photo I've got from the Pinterest and my reply. Almost finished, waiting for a seat (it will be different than the one in the photo). Stay tuned.

I think you'll like it :)

  Some time ago I've been in a local lumberyard and, suprisingly, got some free wood, which was used before for dividing sheets of a plywood. Since then it was stacked in my garage and waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. I couldn't say it was useless, I even lent it to workers painting my neighbour's house :)
Yesterday, I finally cut them into boards and realized how beautiful they are. Here are some photos of them cut and waiting for being planed.

  Look at the pattern. Those boards were cut from one log, it means that they will be really beautiful joined and used as one wide board.
  Some people told me I should make another little cabinet like the one I made before and thanks to them I'm making similar one. Of course, there will be no two cabinets looking the same, so stay tuned for the next project. This time with a complete description and photographies showing how to make your own :)

P.S. If someone knows what kind of wood is that, please tell me. It smells like oak, but when I cut it, it has different smell, has some spots like beech, but looks a bit different. I'm really curious.