Elongated Octagonal Dice Tray - Rosewood Stain and Black Felt

Another elongated dice tray out the door. This one got a healthy dose of General Finishes Rosewood Gel Stain and black felt. The finish is Formby's Tung Oil.

For size reference, the long axis is 9 1/4 inches, the short axis is 6 1/4 inches. The gold dice are 12 mm and the blue dice are 19 mm.

Other color combinations are visible on the gallery post. And, of course, they are available for purchase on Etsy.

More pics after the jump:

Octagonal Dice Tray - Black Poisonwood, or Chechen, with Green Felt

This is another dice tray, this time the standard 3" side, 6 1/4" diameter, octagonal dice tray. They're available on Etsy.

This, like the first one I ever made, is made from black poisonwood, which is also known as chechen or Caribbean rosewood, that is finished with Formby Tung Oil and given a kelly green felt lining.

Octagonal Dice Tray - Red Oak with Blue Felt

19 mm dice

This is another dice tray, this time the standard 3" side, 6 1/4" diameter, octagonal dice tray. They're available on Etsy.

This is made from red oak, with Formby Tung Oil and given a blue felt lining.

12 mm dice

Black Stain Elongated Tray with Purple Felt

Another elongated dice tray out the door. This one got a healthy dose of General Finishes Black Gel Stain and purple felt. The finish is Formby's Tung Oil. I, humbly, think it turned out great. The customer had a great eye for combining the dark colors of black and purple.

For size reference, the long axis is 9 1/4 inches, the short axis is 6 1/4 inches. The gold dice are 12 mm and the blue dice are 19 mm.

Other color combinations are visible on the gallery post. And, of course, they are available for purchase on Etsy.

Red Oak Elongated Dice Tray with Red Felt

By this time everyone knows the drill, this is one of the elongated dice trays that I make and are available on Etsy. The short sides are 3" and the long sides are 6". The interior dimensions are aproximately 9 1/4" on the major axis, 6 1/4" on the minor axis.

This is made from red oak that is finished with Formby Tung Oil and given a red felt lining.

A couple more pics after the jump.

Elongated Octagonal Dice Tray Gallery

Walnut with cocoa brown felt lining

I've created this post simply to have a consolidated gallery of all of the octagonal dice trays that I've made. After the jump are all of the pictures.

My elongated dice trays are available for sale on Etsy.

Elongated Octagonal Dice Tray - v. 1.0

I toyed with calling this an "irregular" octagon. Okay, because I have a lot of respect for my readers, I will concede: Technically this is a "regular" octagon because all of the interior angles are 135 degrees. However, colloquially, it appears "irregular" insofar as it is a polygon that does not approximate a circle, but rather approximates an oval or ellipse. I settled on "elongated" as it adequately describes it. Everyone on board with my pedantry?

(Source)

General Finishes: Rosewood Stain

So, I generally have been on record as being not exactly pro-stain; however, I have used it in the past with postiive results. Also, I got a custom order recently that requested this stain be used, so I figured it was a good excuse to snap a few pictures to demonstrate what exactly this kind of stain does.

Mission Style Wine Rack

I was commissioned to build a wine rack in a different style than the ones I've made in the past. The woodwork in this house fits into the "Mission" style, and thus the design matched the period, style, and materials of Mission furniture. Details and pictures after the jump.

Cutting Board 2.1 - Red Oak

Merry Christmas

Christmas cutting boards for everyone!

Red Oak

Continuing on our tour de wood species: Red Oak...

Reclaiming a Red Oak Plank

There was a board sitting in my grandpa's old building. Probably around 50 years old, complete with dirt, grime, and what looked to be at least one used motor oil spill, it waited patiently for its day in the sun. That day is not today; today was, however, I set it on the first step of its journey.

Today was the day I reclaimed it...

Janka Hardness

The Janka Hardness Test is a method of quantitatively measuring and comparing how hard different wood species are. It works by firing a steel ball into the face of a board and measuring how much force is necessary to sink that ball deep enough that half of it penetrated the wood. You end up with a measure of force in foot-pounds, (it's also listed in Newtons b). This allows us to say "Wood A is twice as hard as Wood B," and to say that with the weight of real measurable lab results. (I know, this is the internet and you all want arguments to be decided by who can type with the most visible anger and rage-destroyed thought processes... deal with it).

After the jump I'll put a list of woods and their Janka Hardness rating. I'll update it periodically and link back to this post as a reference point.

Red Oak Frames

I found some really sweet prints of Miller Park and the Promised Land, Lambeau Field (thanks Huckberry). They needed frames, so I grabbed a little stray red oak and whipped 'em up.

Reclaimed Terracotta Tile Wine Rack

Josh, a friend of mine, sent me a message saying that he needed to have his terracotta roof redone, and he wanted to know if I could use some salvaged tiles to build a wine rack. Wine racks are something of my specialty, so I said of course, and we set to work designing something. He asked me because he wanted to give his wife a nice birthday present... so: Happy Birthday, Julie. I hope you enjoy the unexpected benefits of needing to replace your roof.

Nostalgia Table

Back when I was a wee (as wee as any 15 year old scrawny little fella can be) little freshman in high school, I ended up enrolled in the equivalent of Woodworking 2. Did I skip Woodworking 1 due to my talent? Test out of it? Nope... It was pretty much just the ineptitude of the guidance counselors, but hey, any port in a storm right? Woodworking 1 was for chuds.

Anyway, in this class we built this end table cabinet thing. More or less, it was my first real woodworking project. (I built a Nativity Scene when I was in middle school, but it's not the right season, so I'm just not going to count it).

Why am I posting about this? Mainly to show where I started, and to give you a sense of how far I've come.