The North End Craftsman

It is said best by the client I did this project for and that was posted on her own Facebook page: “After 30 years, our front gate was falling apart. It wouldn’t close properly, and it rattled in the wind. Fortunately, we knew just the person to build a new one: Walt Woolf, friend and neighbor, master woodworker and craftsman, who also built the amazing mid-century inspired vanity in our…

A Custom Woodworkers Workbench by the NEC.

NEC for The North End Craftsman. The bench top, except for the oak lining the sides, is built from fir that was original to our 1940 home. The top was glued together in three sections and run through a wide-belt sander making it perfectly flat. The three sections are through-bolted from the sides to allow the top to “breath”(shrink and swell) through the seasons. Old nails holes and other…

Before and After. What 8 years of Pacific Northwest patina looks like.

These chairs are based on an Adirondack chair geometry except a bit taller and without the long leg sticking out the back. The were mostly built from reclaimed cedar from a deck modification project and a few purchased 5/4″ cedar stock. They are through-bolted in many placed and other places fastened together with exterior screws. The first photo shows them within weeks of their initial…

Those glass cabinet doors in my last post and a mini celebration.

Here are a couple short time lapses of installing the glass panels in the cabinet doors and then the doors onto the cabinet in our kitchen and a mini celebration. The glass panels were custom-ordered from a local glass company, Sound Glass, to fit my door frames. They said it would be within 1/16″ tolerance of what I gave them, and it was but 1/16″ on the larger size is what I got… They were…

Those glass cabinet doors in my last post and a mini celebration.

Heer are a couple short time lapses of installing the glass panels in the cabinet doors and then the doors onto the cabinet in our kitchen and a mini celebration. The glass panels were custom-ordered from a local glass, Sound Glass, company to fit my door frames. They said it would be within 1/16′ tolerance of what I gave them, and it was but 1/16″ on the larger size is what I got… They were…

Kitchen Transformation – Phase 1

It all began with a mock-up of a cardboard cabinet and a plywood countertop, as a concept. But it is much bigger than that; this is a transformation of a kitchen originally built in 1940 and it is now well on it’s to a completely new kitchen. The floor has been replaced and now two walls have cabinet that never had cabinets before. The refrigerator is now where a Murphy table once was and the…

The BEAR

Oars

As a 2002 graduate of the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building I had the opportunity to work on the “Bear” longboat, pictured here on the right. A highlight was I and another student were given the task of making and installing the whiskey plank; the last plank of the hull. I also made one of the oars pictured in the second photo. The oars were made up of glued-up lumber,…

My DIY Rolling Tool Cabinet

Spoiler alert; cute baby photos enclosed.

I built this tool cabinet nearly 11 years ago, about six months or so after my son was born. The basic structure of this cabinet is a heavy-duty steel utility shelf unit. The outside walls of the cabinet are 1/4″ plywood through-bolted into the holes of the shelving unit’s upright corners. The doors are mounted to the front with basic door hinges and held…

For a three year stint I worked for a high-end custom yacht building company in Seattle. The smallest yacht they build is 130′ and the largest one I worked on in my time there was 240′. During those three years we launched three yachts and I moved on while in the beginning stages of a forth.

It is an incredible operation with shipwrights/marine carpenters (that was my job), plumbers,…

An Antique Table Repair

This table was handed down to us from my mother in-law whose family owned a furniture store in Pottsville, PA. This piece was traded-in for a new table, we estimate, sometime in the 50’s for a new piece of furniture. The store owner, my wife’s grandfather, knew it was a valuable antique and kept it in the basement until 1964 when he gave it to my wife’s parents as a wedding present. We were given…

A “Fancy” Carpenter’s Desk

When I first arrived at the office my most recent salaried position I was confronted with a poor office layout and a desk that was inadequately made from particle board covered with plastic laminate countertop material. I would have non of that so commenced to design and build what you see in the photos below. The structure of this desk is make from scrap construction 2×4 material found in the…

This project for my own home is inspired by the idea of floating shelves and other floating cabinets I have seen from various sources. With the flair of The Northend Craftsman design/build philosophy the following photo gallery shows many of the details quire clearly. Some of the more subtle details not obvious from the photographs are the cabinet door frames and drawer pulls are fashioned from…

This client approached me to create a liquor cabinet inserted into an antique wardrobe cabinet as a birthday present for her husband. She described that she wanted a place to hang wine glasses, store liquor and wine bottles and some drink mixing tools. The wine glass hangers are made from reclaimed spruce salvaged from my own home’s original built-in basement shelving and the main structure from…