I've always thought the Creek was a great source for research while I was working on small projects, improvements to my shop space, and general woodworking topics. So I finally signed up and I figured I would share a project I finally got to complete.
In 2009 or 2010, Irene or another major storm took down a significant cherry tree in my father-in-law's property. After much debate and research on transportation, sawing costs, additional transportation and storage, a cousin and my father-in-law got together on a starter mill. Fast forward a few years, and now I've started picking into the stack a bit, which is now in-doors to get the MC down from around 15% to below 10%.
The candle boxes I've made are based on the design I found available on the web through Google books I think, and while not entirely hand-tool creations, made great use of a #45 I picked up recently, along with other hand planes. Finish, because I was concerned with blotching, went seal-coat shellac, oil, oil, shellac, shellac, and finally rubbd out with paste wax. The second box was some seriously curly stock, and while I wanted the figure to pop, I didn't want it to be overwhelming.
Bob.