笔架

毛笔没处挂，自己用橡木做了个笔架。Finished with Danish Oil with Walnut stain.

马扎

这次在大陆四处云游，不论是在大江南北，我都见到一种形制简便，用处极大的木质小家具--马扎。回来後，久久不能忘怀，心痒难耐，动手试制。

用废硬木板料备料制成角材，榫头用出头榫，暫不加木钉，日后若鬆脫再補上。因木料取材於廢料，有螺絲痕若干，擬修以補土，飾以不透明漆。坐處擬用繩密編。

榫頭技術上有長進，曉得了（榫頭）盈（榫眼）虛相配的道理，也知道了敲打木頭的秘訣。刨備料技術仍待改進。

閑章一枚

拿做馬扎榫頭剩下的木料，自己刻了一個閑章。

我左手天生就像達文西一樣可以寫流暢的反字，所以打小刻圖章，從來就是拿了筆直接寫了就刻，毫不拖泥帶水。

在我眼里看來，簡繁，正反都是一個樣，沒有區別。

My coffee table

I enjoy woodworking, particularly with a simple set of hand tools. Woodworking is a fine medium for me to get close to the final truth, Tao.

We don't have a coffee table for almost three years. Before that, we had a crappy coffee table that I recycled from a trash dump site in Columbus OHIO when I was still a graduate student. We kept using the table until it physically broke down.

So, I made one to show my sons how we human-beings can design and create things out from raw materials, and make usefulness out from uselessness. They participated from the beginning of plotting to the end of assembly. I hope they can remember that we can be creative--if there is none available, then we roll up our sleeves to make one. It is a floating-top, knocked-down furniture. I sawed out all of these strips with a pull saw from a big piece of white-wood. It is too cold to do finishing to the table. I will wait until next Spring.



The gap is too large. Still a room for improvement.

My octagonal taboret

With many weekends' labors and sweats, my octagonal taboret is almost done, and Mother is extremely pleased by my work. Next steps would be adjusting, sanding and finishing. This taboret is purely done with hand tools. For that reason, some adjustments are required.

This was a good learning experience to me, particularly on the mortises and tenons cutting techniques. I use a mallet and a chisel for mortising. After experimenting few different ways, my mortise cutting technique, now, fixes on the Japanese woodworking tradition--start from the middle line of a mortise, and gradually work towards the edges of the mortises by cutting a thin slice each time. This technique produces a beautiful mortise that can't be made with other means.

My next project would be a float-top coffee table. It would be an art-and-crafts furniture, yet, I will finish it in different hues to achieve a modern atmosphere. The shape of the table looks like the following one.


from Thos. Moser

音響桌

書房放了一臺音響，就放在地上，實在不好看，也不方便。我想自己做個桌子放音響。形狀約略為圖中桌形，但要矮些。

Cherry Console Table by Liza Wheeler