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Here's My Woodworking!

by Scott Wilson
Buford, GA

I grew up in South Eastern Ohio near Amish country. My father was, and still is, a woodworker. I started woodworking my freshman year of high school. My first real project was a rocking horse that I entered in a state wide fine arts completion. I won first place. My father helped me do a lot of the work since I had not really done anything of that scale before. After I won the competition I was hooked. I'm not sure if it was because I enjoyed working on the horse or if it was because my first project also won me a big trophy and a state title.

Since Dad helped me do a lot of the work, I didn't feel like I had totally earned the win so I was determined that the next project would be all me. I started learning everything I could through woodworking magazines and from my high school industrial arts teacher. Our teacher was a skilled woodworker and gave us a good all-around education in woodworking, drafting and design. I think the thrill of winning competitions motivated me to learn all I could about woodworking through high school but when I realized I was good at it I continued doing projects for my own enjoyment and personal growth.

I have a nicely equipped home shop with a mix of power and vintage hand tools. I do a few commissions per year but much of the time I build for myself. I manage a hardwood distribution center and industrial woodshop full time but I spend a lot of my free time in my home shop. My taste in projects is a little eclectic. I enjoy making traditional furniture, laying up figured veneers, and turning. Recently, my friend and fellow woodworker Grant Lutz has been teaching me how to work with green wood using drawknives and spoke shaves on a shave horse to make Windsor chairs.

Sapele Greene and Greene Style File Cabinet. Hand cut
mortise and tenon with ebony splines and plugs. 
Greene and Greene Style Desk to go with the File Cabinet. 
Windsor chair still in progress (Windsor stool for now).
Except for the lathe work all the shaping was done with
drawknives, spoke shave, scorp and travisher. 
Curly Cherry Sleigh Bed. Book matched curly cherry veneer
layed up on a bent laminated panel (glued in my flip top
vacuum press). 
Greene and Greene quartered wt oak sofa table. Mortise
and tenon joints with ebony splines and plugs.
Epiphanes rubbed finish. 
Communion Table I made for our church. 
One of the Hard Maple desks I made for our office a work. 
Smart Head Shave Horse made from Pete Galbert's design.
The head is ratched to adjust quickly without having to
remove any pins. Grant Lutz uses it a lot more than I do. 
3D end grain cutting board with Maple, Cherry and Sapele. 
One of my wooden gear clock faces. 
Cherry bar in a man cave. 
Distressed island. 
Curved front cherry bathroom vanity. 
Cherry office lobby. 

You can email Scott at scott@gahwd.com or take a look at his website at www.regalwoodturning.com .

Would you like to see your woodworking in this column? We invite you to SEND US PHOTOS of your favorite woodworking projects along with captions and a brief history of your woodworking. (Email photos at 800x600 resolution.) Receive a $50 store gift card if we show your stuff in a future issue.


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