THE COMMISSION

Last week, a gentlemen called me about a project he had in mind for his daughter. He brought over a custom, stained-glass panel that he wanted to use for a wall-mounted, spice cabinet door panel.  The client is no stranger to woodworking but doesn’t have time and all his tools on hand or he would have done it… Read more

Several days ago, I was asked to rebuild a few storm door inserts destroyed by some overzealous dogs.

I hesitated a bit because it seemed liked a boring production item, but I am not one to usually turn down a woodworking project.

So I got some high-grade Douglass Fir and went to work replicating the screened versions.

The mangled model… Read more

In continuation of a previous post, this is the second and final part of the exterior door project.

The Arch

The first part starts with a nervous step in the project – the arch cut. Any and all mistakes would be very noticeable and unrepairable, cosmetically anyhow. The only tool I could turn to for this operation was my jigsaw.… Read more

The Commission

About the beginning of May, I met with a friend of a friend at their new photography studio in Fairbanks, Alaska. Heath and his wife Audrey worked the last several months to establish their business in a new location and they had a need for some specialized woodworking. Between the two, it’s obvious that they have a complimentary… Read more

The Commission

A door doesn’t sound like a significant project, until there are other details added like annual outdoor temperature fluxuations of 150° F, 90-100° F temp difference between in/outdoors, and a sporadic humidity level.

One day I received a phone call from a lady who wanted an arched, solid wood door for her daughter’s upcoming new construction this May.… Read more

It hasn’t taken long to get too much work to keep me busy. Unfortunately, circumstances and administrative distractions took a toll on my time in the shop lately. It became apparent that I needed to hire someone to help me. The last thing I want is to turn away work, if possible. I spent the week looking for an employee… Read more

In the previous post, we started on an ottoman project for a local client. The hope was to be finished on day 2, which didn’t happen, but I came close enough to wrap up this two-part series. By the end of the last post, I completed milling of the rails and stretchers.

A friend asked me to make him an ottoman for his chair. He wanted something similar to mine that he saw at the show, but a couple inches narrower. The neat thing is that he has all the materials required, including the quarter-sawn white oak (QSWO) and wants to finish it himself in order to color match

I remember not too long ago experiencing some difficulty with a serious gap in our capabilities towards our goals here at Birch Hill Woodcrafts. We knew we had to be able to design custom wood concepts in furniture and such, but we weren’t prepared to do so in any reliable fashion. I am not a big fan, nor ever slightly… Read more

They say a woodworker that can make a high quality box can make anything. The reason is – a “simple” box often requires a full range of woodworking skills. Even though boxes remain smaller woodcraft items, their lines and curves become central aspects of the piece and it’s easy to see the details quickly. That can both be good and… Read more