Cherry and Walnut Sculpted Bench

by rickysp8

14K54635

Intro: 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:

35 Comments

wyndham carruth 5 years ago

very nice bench.......love the dovetails.....i never could do anything like that

philn7 7 years ago

Dovetails look like it grew there....

robolimbo 9 years ago

Very nice bench. I wish I could cut out dovetails like that. Great build.

mholmes16 10 years ago

Is mesquite easy to do this with. I have plenty

monty324 10 years ago

I believe mesquite is very dense and hard to cut but give it a shot, the grain is cool as well.

tcrafttx 10 years ago

your wife is a very lucky women! so beautiful! amazing, great instructions. thanks for sharing please share more of your projects! cant wait to see whats next!

gcanders 10 years ago

Very beautiful. The only think I don't like about it is that it is not mine!

rickysp8 10 years ago

Thanks gcanders
Peace Ricky
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