Shelves! Everyone needs shelves, right?
If I was taught anything by my parents there are three secrets to a happy life: good food, good booze and good friends to share them with! While recently there has been little opportunity for the sharing part of things, I found myself running out of space in the liquor cabinet. We had recently renovated our kitchen and I had a brand new blank wall to play with; why not build some shelves! I wanted something interesting other than traditional scrollwork and started playing around with some bar stock in the basement.
All in all, the knot part worked out well! The ‘getting the knot sorted out in the angle iron’ was a different story! Again, I apologize for not having pictures of the trial and error…one doesn’t think to take pictures when in the midst of things! Now, if I had an intern…but I digress!
The wood here is actually quite interesting in and of its self! We live in a house built in about 1903 and during the initial renovations my father in law was smart enough to salvage as much of the original timber as possible. This straight grained, clear pine is amazing stuff! Rough-sawed to 4″x 2″ it has been weathered in place for over 100 years and looks amazing. I asked him to prepare three boards for me and he provided these outstanding planks by ripping them in half (ish) to about 3/4″ and laminating them together. Couldn’t be happier!
Now, the angle-iron could have been worked better by me! Getting things square by eye is…interesting. I did not succeed exactly, but they were good enough for what I was doing. After all, in a house over 100 years old, nothing – and I mean nothing! – is square or plumb!
As you can see, I tried a few things out on the bars. Didn’t love the hammered texture, but in looking at it again if I had textured the entire bar I think it would have come out much better. All in all, I was pretty happy with how they turned out! I need to work on my forge welding (don’t tell anyone; I cheated again with the MIG gun…), but that is something that will come with time.
As always, keep making stuff folks!
-Russ