Years ago I came across an old house that was being renovated and spotted a piece of 2×4 sticking out of the trash so I grabbed it. Since the growth rings were very tight and thought that I would build a nice box for some of my mechanical pencils with it.

After thinking about it for a while, I realized that the best way to make the board was to simply create a walnut and maple cutting board. Buy gluing up strips of maple and walnut I was able to cut strips off of that and reassemble them into the classic chessboard pattern.


I originally thought of turning these on the lathe but quickly gave up on that plan, as I lack the skills to do so. But I am a huge fan of modern art and minimalist objects. And started to do some research and eventually came across a set created by Lanier Graham in 1966 and fell in love with its simplicity and really enjoyed how all of the pieces fit in a tiny little box.

I want to first start off by saying this was an experiment, One of those moments where you see something and think. How hard could that be? Well, this was harder than I thought.

Let’s start off by creating the wooden wick when I did my research for this project I read that using softwood or hardwood didn’t matter, I also saw that some people soaked their wicks in olive oil. More on that later.

I have long been a fan of Nick Offerman, since the early days where he and Jimmy DiResta built a canoe. Recently I got the chance to power read ( look at the pictures and glance at some of the words ) Nicks book called Good Clean Fun. This is a great book and I will have to circle back to it when I have a bit more time.

This was a fun and really quick build, A co-worker brought a puzzle into the office since I have been creating a handful recently.

I took one look and thought… I can make that. He called it a Cherry Tree Puzzle.

This has to be one of my favorite things to look at. I love how Walnut has so much character.

This puzzle is actually very simple to make.

Starting off I took some stock that had a number of ugly checks and cracks down the length. After processing the wood I marked my first piece to get an estimate for now long each piece would be.

Well, it was a cold day in the shop, sitting around -10c. I wanted to build a Burr puzzle that I had come across in a store and thought it would be a fun project to recreate using some scrap walnut.

After cleaning up the boards, I cut them into strips making sure to orient the grain for stability. Cutting the new boards into sections and gluing them I ended up with a sizable end grain cutting board.

After finishing the Walnut IQ Puzzle I had a number of small tools and pencils all over the bench. It was time to make a shop pencil holder!