I'm not sure if this is the correct forum to post work projects. But it seems the logical place.
This is my first such post, so I'll write a short intro about how I got into woodworking and what I actually do.
I'm a complicated breed of star gazing and pragmatism, having attended humanities, arts and social sciences altogether. You could say I'm a polymath but I'm not completely sure that is accurate. I am an artist at heart, my mind is shaped for sciences but the studies I graduated are humanities because at that time I was lazy. So for the last 15 years I've been a linguist and a technical translator (yes, in English).
Working with wood has always been a passion. As a kid I spent a lot of time at the countryside. One of our neighbours was a carpenter and I'd go there and stay with him mesmerized by the wonder of wood transformation. Then, my dad's youngest brother opened up the first private furniture factory in post-communist Romania. It sounds more pompous than it actually is. The factory with all facilities occupied about 2 hectares. They were taking in wood logs and process everything up to furniture for the end user.
I learned a lot there. But I was a child. I forgot a lot as well. About 5 years ago, I realized I wouldn't be able to work much more as a translator, it gradually became too consuming. It was the time when the internet started to be flooded with epoxy resin thingies. River tables mostly. That somehow relit my passion in this direction. It was then when I decided my professional reconversion.
I started investing. Initially, I bought cheap stuff. I was also investing in my house. After fiddling with the cheap stuff a bit I realized the errors of my way. And the fact that a person who knows more woodworking is able to work excellent with cheaper stuff for obvious reasons. I just wasn't that person. Moments ago I read an article about Peter Parfitt's work. It included advices for novices and it stated to buy the best tools one can afford and the best materials within the budget. This is what I started doing after my initial experience with cheap tools.
Much of my investment took place in real time, namely allocating as much as possible of my monthly income to buy the best I could find. Not the absolute best, don't get me wrong. But still best-in-class items.
All this time I would read a lot, do extensive research in everything woodworking, machines, tools, what to buy and what to avoid, etc. In 2021 I took on a crazy offer to assess a truck full of vintage furniture and give a price quotation for its restoration. I did that, then took a test piece to restore. I took it to a neighbor who is a master sculptor. He did the carpentry work, I did veneering and finishes. I forgot to mention that I graduated a vocational arts school where I studied restoration for a year or so. Next thing you know, the customer accepted my offer and I found myself having to restore that truck of furniture with (I can say) close to no experience, no shop and by far not enough tools. What I did was go back to my neighbor and ask him to join forces. My gain in this has not been much financial but priceless experience. We agreed I would start an apprenticeship with him, which I did.
I know I still know so little, but I learned so much in this one year and a half. The guy is a great sculptor, one of the best of his generation, also an ok carpenter (he hates carpentry, does it for the money). Unfortunately, like many here, he has lost his passion, is mostly bored and in a rush. Where I am very attentive to details and I take my sweet time.
Now the truck's content is almost completed. It's not precious furniture, but furniture that has sentimental value for my customer and he is willing to pay for its restoration. I wanted to share projects that I worked after reading several here. Unfortunately, I don't have enough pics for that. What I will share is my latest project. In a few of the pieces of furniture, our customer asked for an inlay cast in epoxy. I made some digital design proposals, he accepted the first one. My mistake was to use an amethyst texture. He chose and insisted on amethyst. For those of you who don't know, amethyst has very high hardness value, it is not used for inlaying. It isn't that big of a deal for this type of inlay, just that it slows me down badly. I have to select the tiny stones one by one to make sure they don't go beyond a certain size. Of course I only learned the challenges of amethyst after making the first one. Had to buy diamond sanding tools especially for this.
Ok, skipping other details, I'll say this: I haven't built a river table and probably won't. I don't like to copy others. During the last 5 years I realized I want to do mainly woodworking not resin working. I want to make my own pieces, not restore the work of others. And I want to do inlays, veneering and small pieces. Decorations, useful items like household stuff. Boxes, etc. What comes next we will see. I'm about to finish my investment in the coming weeks, build my shop furniture, complete my restoration contract and start my actual future woodworking business.
In the meantime, I salute those of you who have read my entire post! Thank you.
The subject of this post is a 19th century nightstand, of unknown origin but I suspect it to be Austrian, probably a limited production run. It's part of a bigger set. The wood is part ash, part spruce with ash veneer. The actual restoration I we made one year ago, but I recently added the inlay. First picture shows the initial state. The recess had some textured paper (from a vintage magazine) under a sheet of glass.
Everything began with a compass and an exacto knife. The small rounded decor are actually thin dowel slices cut at the scroll saw. The center piece (under the veneer flower on top) has a laser cut template base, the only part that is not handmade here. As for the rest, maths and a lot of attention and care. In order to bring the flower to a color similar to that of the nightstand, it is not stain that I used but shellac. Finally, I did not polish the resin to a perfect glass/mirror finish as I wanted the inlay to look a little weathered. Too perfect would have been too new looking imo. The images are self-explanatory for the rest.
Apologies for such a long post. Promise I'll make the next shorter.
Looking forward for feedback of all kinds.
This is my first such post, so I'll write a short intro about how I got into woodworking and what I actually do.
I'm a complicated breed of star gazing and pragmatism, having attended humanities, arts and social sciences altogether. You could say I'm a polymath but I'm not completely sure that is accurate. I am an artist at heart, my mind is shaped for sciences but the studies I graduated are humanities because at that time I was lazy. So for the last 15 years I've been a linguist and a technical translator (yes, in English).
Working with wood has always been a passion. As a kid I spent a lot of time at the countryside. One of our neighbours was a carpenter and I'd go there and stay with him mesmerized by the wonder of wood transformation. Then, my dad's youngest brother opened up the first private furniture factory in post-communist Romania. It sounds more pompous than it actually is. The factory with all facilities occupied about 2 hectares. They were taking in wood logs and process everything up to furniture for the end user.
I learned a lot there. But I was a child. I forgot a lot as well. About 5 years ago, I realized I wouldn't be able to work much more as a translator, it gradually became too consuming. It was the time when the internet started to be flooded with epoxy resin thingies. River tables mostly. That somehow relit my passion in this direction. It was then when I decided my professional reconversion.
I started investing. Initially, I bought cheap stuff. I was also investing in my house. After fiddling with the cheap stuff a bit I realized the errors of my way. And the fact that a person who knows more woodworking is able to work excellent with cheaper stuff for obvious reasons. I just wasn't that person. Moments ago I read an article about Peter Parfitt's work. It included advices for novices and it stated to buy the best tools one can afford and the best materials within the budget. This is what I started doing after my initial experience with cheap tools.
Much of my investment took place in real time, namely allocating as much as possible of my monthly income to buy the best I could find. Not the absolute best, don't get me wrong. But still best-in-class items.
All this time I would read a lot, do extensive research in everything woodworking, machines, tools, what to buy and what to avoid, etc. In 2021 I took on a crazy offer to assess a truck full of vintage furniture and give a price quotation for its restoration. I did that, then took a test piece to restore. I took it to a neighbor who is a master sculptor. He did the carpentry work, I did veneering and finishes. I forgot to mention that I graduated a vocational arts school where I studied restoration for a year or so. Next thing you know, the customer accepted my offer and I found myself having to restore that truck of furniture with (I can say) close to no experience, no shop and by far not enough tools. What I did was go back to my neighbor and ask him to join forces. My gain in this has not been much financial but priceless experience. We agreed I would start an apprenticeship with him, which I did.
I know I still know so little, but I learned so much in this one year and a half. The guy is a great sculptor, one of the best of his generation, also an ok carpenter (he hates carpentry, does it for the money). Unfortunately, like many here, he has lost his passion, is mostly bored and in a rush. Where I am very attentive to details and I take my sweet time.
Now the truck's content is almost completed. It's not precious furniture, but furniture that has sentimental value for my customer and he is willing to pay for its restoration. I wanted to share projects that I worked after reading several here. Unfortunately, I don't have enough pics for that. What I will share is my latest project. In a few of the pieces of furniture, our customer asked for an inlay cast in epoxy. I made some digital design proposals, he accepted the first one. My mistake was to use an amethyst texture. He chose and insisted on amethyst. For those of you who don't know, amethyst has very high hardness value, it is not used for inlaying. It isn't that big of a deal for this type of inlay, just that it slows me down badly. I have to select the tiny stones one by one to make sure they don't go beyond a certain size. Of course I only learned the challenges of amethyst after making the first one. Had to buy diamond sanding tools especially for this.
Ok, skipping other details, I'll say this: I haven't built a river table and probably won't. I don't like to copy others. During the last 5 years I realized I want to do mainly woodworking not resin working. I want to make my own pieces, not restore the work of others. And I want to do inlays, veneering and small pieces. Decorations, useful items like household stuff. Boxes, etc. What comes next we will see. I'm about to finish my investment in the coming weeks, build my shop furniture, complete my restoration contract and start my actual future woodworking business.
In the meantime, I salute those of you who have read my entire post! Thank you.
The subject of this post is a 19th century nightstand, of unknown origin but I suspect it to be Austrian, probably a limited production run. It's part of a bigger set. The wood is part ash, part spruce with ash veneer. The actual restoration I we made one year ago, but I recently added the inlay. First picture shows the initial state. The recess had some textured paper (from a vintage magazine) under a sheet of glass.
Everything began with a compass and an exacto knife. The small rounded decor are actually thin dowel slices cut at the scroll saw. The center piece (under the veneer flower on top) has a laser cut template base, the only part that is not handmade here. As for the rest, maths and a lot of attention and care. In order to bring the flower to a color similar to that of the nightstand, it is not stain that I used but shellac. Finally, I did not polish the resin to a perfect glass/mirror finish as I wanted the inlay to look a little weathered. Too perfect would have been too new looking imo. The images are self-explanatory for the rest.
Apologies for such a long post. Promise I'll make the next shorter.
Looking forward for feedback of all kinds.
