Woodworking In Exile/Hawaii

I just wanted to notify those of you that occasionally check-in on me and my latest work that I am now making furniture in Honolulu Hawaii . I'm on sort of on a work adventure . I am taking a break from my little woodworking business in Coarsegold to explore a position with Martin & MacArthur Furniture Makers in Honolulu . Presently , my plan is to take some time to learn from and work with one of the worlds most highly regarded fine furniture companies , and then return to my own shop sometime soon . I guess it's sort of a working vacation . I'll probably be back in business on the main land in a few weeks or months , or however long it takes me to fully evaluate the real potential of this amazing opportunity . As always , please feel free to stay in touch with new projects and ideas .

Bed Frame

I made this bed frame a couple of years ago , but a few questions about my unusual joinery has prompted me to post it . In setting out to design a bed frame I decided that I wanted to make a piece that assembled and knocked-down without the usual nuts and bolts or metal brackets . Metal really has no place in fine woodworking . I believe a good woodworker should be able to fulfill a furniture function through design , material selection , and joinery , and not take the shortcut to modern factory hardware . The tension joint I applied to this piece is a modified small-scale version of a joint more commonly used in timberframe home construction . I originally designed this piece to be made with Douglas Fir (another tie-in to post & beam construction) but the vertical-grain stock I wanted was a bit too pricey for an experimental design . Now that the piece is made and is a proven performer , I look forward to building the next piece in something better than common Red Oak .

Trestle-style Table

34''W 72'' L 30'' H

Superior Red Alder top and Sugar Maple base

H. Behlen Co. Tung oil/varnish finish

I made this piece a couple of years ago ( you can see that the pic was taken in my gallery ) but it recently caught the eye of a potential client , so I thought I would post it . The base is assembled with wedge joints , and the top attaches to the base with an all-wood wedge and clip joint that I created . After making this piece I made a bed frame (posted above) that utilizes another of my knockdown wedge joints . If I were to remake this table I think I would adapt the rail-to-post joinery I developed for the bed frame to this table design . The bed joinery , as you will notice , doesn't project from the post , which when applied to the table would alleviate the potential problem of the head chair knocking knees on the tenon . As always , go to my photostream for more pics .