In the Shaker tradition, I will start with something simple and functional. The Shakers were nothing if not great organizers, and this little shelf was designed to hang from one of the rows of wooden pegs that lined the walls of many of their rooms. Present-day smokers will find it serves its original function quite well, while non-smokers may find it useful for the display of small objects or plants.
The design is taken from John G. Shea's
Making Authentic Shaker Furniture. While it lacks the sophisticated joinery of more complex designs, it has the functional elegance of the best Shaker pieces. Much of the time and energy consumed in building anything from solid wood is taken up with the preparation of the stock, and the simple design will allow me to concentrate on that aspect of the work while giving me an opportunity to practice my blogging skills on a live audience!
There is no particular variety of hardwood favored by Shaker woodworkers in general. Most used whatever was available in local forests and, in that tradition, I plan to make use of some rough-sawn planks of local walnut that have been gathering dust in my basement shop. In the next installment, I will show how I turn these into finished lumber.
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