The kitchen island project featured in an earlier post is finally finished and in use in the kitchen. We will most probably will add a lower shelf but the priority at this point is a couple of counter stools so that we can sit at the island to perform tasks and possibly enjoy breakfast in the kitchen.
As someone that has never been all that fascinated with turning, I have found myself doing quite a lot of it lately. Knobs for planes and parts for many Shaker style stools I've been making. However I did not turn the legs for this project.
Given what I would have paid for maple large enough for turning these legs and considering the time it would have taken, I opted to purchase these legs from Matt Burak at tablelegs.com. They produce wonderful, nicely detailed legs and frankly there are just other woodworking projects I would rather spend my woodworking time pursuing.
I turned a shooting board plane knob from Italian Olive this past week and working that material was a memorable woodworking experience. I guess I'm starting to enjoy turning after all. Did I mention that I like working with olive wood? The other knob pictured above is from a piece of Desert Ironwood Burl with a bit of burl sapwood included. It wasn't as enjoyable to turn but the result was pleasing.
I have friends from the North side of Atlanta that make their way down here to visit several times a year. We've established a tradition of me making an apple pie to celebrate their visits. They have deemed this new addition to the kitchen as my "Pie Bench". Works for me.
Having spices in an upper cabinet was a royal PITA. You pretty much had to take half of everything out to find the ones needed for a given recipe. With the spices in the drawer of the island access is easy and quick. I was proud that my dovetails fit up quite well and I like the contrast with the red drawer front.
I made pizza last night and rolled out the pizza crust on the island work surface. The height was great for this task, just a bit over 35".
Now, about those stools, one down and one to go,
Ron
Ron,
ReplyDeleteJust beautiful! Looks like I picked out some nice maple for the top.
Jon
Beautiful work all around. I recently made a pie crust on a granite counter-top that is elbow height...way too high! 35" sounds perfect to me (~same as my workbench).
ReplyDeleteIf this pie bench was used more for rolling than cutting I'd probably want it lower than that. In the same way my shop workbench is only 32 1/2" high. At breakfast it puts the food closer to my mouth (grin)
ReplyDeleteIt seriously looks like it came from a magazine! I love all the little details too!
ReplyDelete