New month new #woodworking project! I’m still working on my Danish cord weaving skills so hopefully this will be a seating bench when I’m done. Figuring out dimensions and getting things square now.

I also picked up a massive 7/4 S2 poplar board while I was at the hardwood store for $25 because why not.

Remind me again why we don’t build fine furniture entirely with Poplar? 🤔 It’s actually kind of beautiful and you can’t beat the price.

The process of #woodworking without an exact plan is fun but it's also a little stressful. When I want to make something, I do some research, find a couple of photos, and sketch out dimensions on paper with pencil.

Smaller details like marking the position of joinery relies a lot on feeling and instinct which is what I'm doing today.

There will be a frame for weaving the seat and also exposed rail so the joinery count will be 16 mortis and tenons.

For funsies, I timed myself making one of the joints. Starting from marking it out, cutting the mortise, sizing the tenon, and fine tuning it took....

...20 minutes. 🫣 17 joints x 20 minutes = 5.6 hrs

I would really like to speed that up because who wants to be banging away and m&t's for half a day?

#woodworking

I learned from my little practice stool and made my weaving stretchers thicker so that I could make the tenons long enough to miter the ends where they meet inside the leg.

And can I just say how I'm constantly amazed by all the hidden beauty of #woodworking!? Especially the things that nobody will ever see like these mitered tenons. 🥰

This weekend I did some shaping, sanding, and applied a finish to the walnut pieces ahead of glue-up.

I'm keeping track of the hours for this one too. Hand tool #woodworking takes longer but looking at the time log really puts the term "starving artist" into perspective.

I haven't even started the weaving yet. 😮‍💨

Purchase wood: 1 hr
Planning, sketching: 3 hrs
Dimensioning: 8 hrs
Labeling, grain selection: 1hr
Joinery: 8 hrs
Shaping, Legs: 5 hrs
Sanding, Finish: 3 hrs

Total: 29 hrs

We are ready for weaving! I'm using just a couple of nails (154 to be precise).

#woodworking

I have the first side wrapped and this has basically been an exercise in how much cord can I waste. I did a rough guess on how much to pull out for the wrap and over-guessed by like 70 feet 🤦🏽‍♀️

At least I know now how much it should be for the next time! (It’s 80 ft)

Weaving time at this point is about 3 hrs.

#woodworking

I'm calling this one done. Total time was around 35 hours; dimensioning, joinery, shaping, finishing, and weaving.

I can see myself making more of this style of bench and this one will be a great baseline design for future iterations. I think there are places that the design/execution can be modified and massaged a little more but there's also something comforting about the simplicity with it too.

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@jamigibbs Nice! I love the joinery. I’m about 2/3 through building a shoe/coat hall tree with bench to put just outside the entry door from our garage. My first real furniture project, and a lot more work than I expected!

@c20d Fantastic!! Our little #woodworking mastodon community will appreciate it! That's quite a big first project. 💪

@c20d

I totally agree with @jamigibbs and I'm curious to see the final result 😍