Cherry and Walnut Sculpted Bench

I made this bench for my wife for Christmas Made of 2"thick walnut and 3 1/2 " cherry hope you like it.

Step 1:

I started with a slab cut piece of cherry with live edge on both sides 3 1/2 " think 13 wide x 38" long removed the bark and planed down to 3 1/8th

Step 2:

I couldn't find any walnut wide enough so I joined 2 pieces 8"s wide 2 1/4 's thick

Step 3:

next I milled out the cherry to 3 1/4 28's long leaving the live edges and the walnut to 13' x 18' x 2' thick I wet them with water to show the grain. I like!

Step 4:

next layed out my 10 deg. dovetails starting from center out to leave live edge 

Step 5:

made the rough cuts with the band saw

Step 6:

removed excess wood and cleaned up dovetails this step takes awhile

Step 7:

marked out pins in the walnut

Step 8:

cut and cleaned up pins

Step 9:

mated up  I took my time with the clean up and the dovetails fit very nicely. Glued and ready for shaping

Step 10:

Marked out with patterns I made and roughed out with a chainsaw blade in my side grinder. Then various sandpaper starting with 24 grit

Step 11:

I used planes, rasps and sand paper to work it down until I was happy with the shape

Step 12:

3 1/4' dovetails are hard to get perfect

Step 13:

put a little glue and some cherry dust from my band saw let dry and sanded

Step 14:

they came out pretty good

Step 15:

next I used chisels, rasp and sand paper to bring the legs up to the shape of the live edge 

Step 16:

a little scraping and sanding all over to 220 grit and it's ready for the finish

Step 17:

I used a semi gloss poly for the finish. This is after the first coat

Step 18:

5 coats sanded with 320 grit between coats still wet in picture

Step 19:

Its finished I had to let it set over night between coats of poly. but total time was about 12 hours not including searching for the wood. I payed $40.00 for the cherry it had been drying for about 3 years I was told. The walnut had been drying for about a year it was a little green but I think it will be ok. It was 2 1/2 thick x 8" x 9' I got it for $30.00 because it had a bad edge witch I didn't need anyway with the finish and sandpaper I got less than $100.00's in it I wish I had used gloss instead of semi But I'm well pleased I hope my wife is.Thanks for looking Peace Ricky

Step 20: