Giornata in Reclaim: Key Shelf

Yesterday I found out we are traveling to the city to visit my cousin, who just bought a house. It's to be a big party for the whole family. My mom is bringing him a blender, I'm going to make a wall shelf inspired by Dan's Candle Till. Ever since I saw the first post about resawing 1x8s into 1/2 inch boards I wanted to do something like that, well I got my chance. After about 5 sketches I came up with something small enough to be finished in time. I know the woods and colors in his place are deep red/browns, so I'll use some of my 100 year old mahogany for accents.

A quick search turns up this hunk of 2x8 cut from the center of the tree giving perfect vertical grain, there are some grey sections on the edges, but inside of that is a nice 3 inch wide strip with tight, straight, clear grain. After two smacks with an axe, I have my rough plank.

This billet has enough wood for two of these small shelves, all perfect grain. I'll cross cut, flatten, joint and resaw into the three boards I'll need.

It doesn't take too long, though I wish I was finished with my 29 inch framed ripsaw, hanging just out of the shot. I also with I was finished with the Moxon twin screw vise and the Roubo, but hey. I've noticed my sawing is much improved since the beginning of the summer.

Bookmatching the back boards, I was cutting this board already to practice resawing when I stopped to design the shelf.

My three boards, sides on the top flattened and ready to go.

The small shooting board I made to take on vacation came in handy making the parts, it's so easy to cut and square with these simple tools. Why did I wait so long to make them? Using a fairing stick to draft the curve. I want to make a tapered asymmetrical fairing stick too. I've decided to use pinned rabbets and butt joints, the sides are just over 5/16ths and the bottom 3/8ths. The pins will be toothpicks.

Glue after about an hour of sawing chiseling and planing. I take a break to get ice cream.

I forgot to take pictures of scratching the moulding, carving the peg and assembling the rest of the parts, but here is a detail of the pins, header and peg. I like the contrast in the mahogany/pine and face/endgrain colors, particularly in the endgrain of the toothpicks.

Full length shot in the table, I hope it matches his space well, and that he likes the style.