Strange Days Indeed

These days are filled with so many different types of work that I am beginning to get a headache from changing hats so often. Lucky for me, I have some help in the form of Seth Weizenecker. Seth is a recent graduate of the North Bennet Street School and attended both of the classes that I taught there last year.


I decided to take advantage of his cabinet expertise to finish the countertop for my kitchen project. Seth is a real expert with his handmade persimmon handplanes.



The cherry that I cut off my property about 5 years ago and had cut on a bandsaw mill is serving as the lumber for the project. I don't have a jointer and the material is a bit thin to mill completely anyway, so we decided to just flatten one side and leave the underside rough to preserve the thickness. To join the breadboard ends, we used a simple router jig that references off of the flat face. Below is a sample of the tenon, I noticed the bark and couldn't resist the photo.



Here I am, (my wife says I look concerned, and she's right) with the router jig. By referencing off of one face and using a spacer, the thickness of the tenon is uniform.


What can I say, yuk.

But the results were sweet, although the bit did vibrate loose at one point.


The mortise portion of the jig was rough going, but you can't tell from the outside. Frankly, I have no interest in working to improve the routing of this joint. If I really want to have some fun, I'll follow my dream and get a dovetail plane!


Here is the half lap dovetail that joins the breadboard into the L of the countertop.


I think Seth enjoyed this little detail.


Here you can see the rough underside.


And the finished face! It really came out lovely.


After a little scribing to fit the space, the counter actually snapped into place.
Below is Seth working on my new kiln, which is now done and I'll post after showing the finished kitchen.