Oak beam bed frame

Me and my partner have recently purchased a new matteress and were looking at bed frames but the cost of a nice, decent bed frame nearly made me fall over. I knew I could make myself one that would be bigger, better and constructed to a much higher standard all for cheaper than a half decent frame to buy in the shops. All it would take was the cost of the timber and my time.

I designed an extravagant frame using 150x150 oak building framing timbers and I managed to get timbers, air dried for 6 years at the sizes I needed kindly given to me. I also got some 150x75 Ash which I decided to use for the rails instead of oak. So I have not paid out anything for this bed frame.

Setting out on sanding all the edges down revealed some amazing character including cat paw knots and masses of medullary rays. Working out for all the joints was a task in itself due to the timbers being curved slightly as well as twisted.

I am cutting the mortices and the tenons by hand along with all the timber lengths. The only machinery used will be a belt sander and a drill.

I am at around the 40% complete stage at this moment in time.

This is my main project so updates will be regular and images will follow shortly.

Media unit.

I have been slowly but surely making myself a media unit to house all my DVDs and games. While at the same time have areas made to a specific size to fit in DVD players, consoles and a freeview TV box.I have to many DVDs that are just stacking up at the moment and all due to lack of places to put them, hence the reason to make this!

I designed this with maximum room to store everything I needed in a smaller space taking piece. While being nice and different at the same time. The main thing I wanted to try with this was to include oak in its 3 forms. Green, Air dried and Kiln dried. This is to show off the beauty and unique properties this wood offers in all stages of the drying process. I want the green oak to dry quickly resulting in splits and cracks right up against kiln dried oak that wont have these issues. I hope every piece of green oak I use moves and splits. I want this to happen!

A very exciting piece I am creating for myself here. Hopefully I can get it finished and started on my mums Christmas present.

Busy busy!

Starting to bring things up together.

Over the last few months I have been trying to create my own basic logo and branding, so I can start building a visual name for my business to get the ball rolling.

As at this moment in time I am in full time employment which doesn't leave me much time in the day to work on my projects as well as use the internet to get traffic to my pages. I try cram as much into the day as I can. I am in the process of making and finishing four projects and I try to work on two of them each day. Maybe concentrating on one at a time will help get them finished and in my etsy shop.

Finishing more pieces will fill my shop that I can start getting potential customers to visit and see my work! Promoting my full shop rather than individual products will be easier I hope.

I think this blog needs a facelift as well and more people coming to it as I don't promote this as much as I should.

So the ball is starting to roll ... slowly. But this is just the start!

Etsy Shop now open!

My unique handmade solid oak furniture is now available to buy direct from Etsy.

My shop is http://ryondesign.etsy.com

Check back often to find new items for sale.

Social networks!

I best add my information of my presence on social networks.

Facebook - Ryon Design

Twitter - @RyonDesign

Like/Follow me to see items currently in production and all my plans and ideas. Get your name down before anyone else for something you like before it goes up for sale!

New Gallery Pictures

I have another coffee table in my gallery. This one is a definite one of a kind piece. Everything you see on the gallery page now is available to be made. Remember no two pieces will ever be the same and I want to keep my products as one of a kind pieces. Similar... but never the same.

As they are made to order anything and everything can be custom. Length, Width, Height, Finish, even the Design if need be.

Think of anything you want made. You know that you will never find what your thinking of in the shops. I could make those thoughts reality. That's what I want to do! I don't want to make bog standard furniture!



Lets create something amazing!

Solid oak?

The term Solid oak in furniture should be as it sounds... Solid.

But...

I keep finding myself looking at handmade furniture in shops which are listed as a solid oak table or solid oak chairs that are not solid oak. Solid in my mind is made using one whole solid piece of timber, not many strips glued together to form a thicker piece.

This one table I have in mind was listed as solid oak. It was a lovely looking kitchen table, pretty grain patterns, a strong 2" thick top, and straight chunky legs. Very nice. But it was not solid like it says it is. Upon closer inspection every section of it was strips glued together. The whole table and it was £1300. I was a little disappointed to be honest, which I keep finding myself when looking around at "solid" furniture.

Maybe it is just because I know I use fully solid timber for my work and maybe expect things to be the same.

Quality made products will far exceed products of "not so good" quality. If any of you are out and about, have a closer look if you are thinking about buying solid wood items. Maybe you are totally happy with these types are products and if so, Fantastic. But just keep an eye out for things that are not what they say they are.

Frankenstein furniture.

As well as wanting to make gorgeous new oak furniture from scratch I have recently started thinking up ideas which will combine many pieces of furniture together to create something different. Not necessary beautiful furniture, again just going with a different feel.

I will soon be setting myself a small challenge to have a go at this idea. I am thinking everything I will use must be pre owned and only obtained at places like car boot sales, freecycle or homeless charities like Emmaus. A small amount of cash per project and a limited number of pieces to use.

So for example. I will have £20 to get 3 pieces of furniture from Sundays car boot sale. Then create something by combining them all together.

I am thinking this side of what I'm creating only using recycled materials. Nothing new at all. Apart from glue and maybe fixings!

Some very crazy things running through my head with this in mind at the moment! Lets get this started!

Coat Rack

After only just noticing that me and my partner have an ever increasing pile of coats laid across the top of our shoe chest in our hallway I thought the time has come to make a coat rack. I wanted to make something quick, simple, different and interesting. It didn't take me long to cut and shape something out. I chose a dried 30mm thick oak board with an attractive grain pattern. I shaped the corners different from each other also for something unusual. This is what I came up with:

Once sanded smooth I decided on only oiling the raised face side of the oak and the outside edge. A clear wax coat for the rest of it. The idea being a darker warm coloured face sitting on a lighter back. As if the front has been fixed on after.

I had this finished and waiting to go for a good few weeks while trying to find some hooks to use with it. I didn't want to go for new, bright and shiny hooks in a light finish. I was more looking for old, patina, worn, dull. At the start I was thinking a distressed bronze but after seeing a few examples I thought the golden bronze would not suit the look I was going for.

So a darker finish was the way forward. Many charity shop visits and car boot sales later nothing seemed to appear.

I had a massive stroke of luck when speaking with my partners mum about the hooks. She had an old coat rack in the shed with hooks matching what I was trying to find.  They were perfect. I could finally finish this small project that I though would take maybe two days to make, find hooks and put up. It was more like 6 weeks.

I gave the hooks a little scrub in some warm soapy water and dried them off thoroughly before mounting them. I decided on placing the hooks unevenly again for something different. And finally the finished project (before fixing to the wall) photographed by my partner Louise. (See her blog here http://www.dearestjackdaw.com/ )

Bench refresh.

I was asked by my partners Gran to take a look at her garden bench as she was worried about it collapsing if someone sat on it. Sure enough it wouldn't have taken much for it to collapse under a little weight. The bench itself had two cast iron ends with wooden slats bolted to each of the ends. The slats were rotting at the bolts which meant it was not very safe at all. On top of this many of the slats had been replaced before, but only with softwood.

So I obviously said I would sort it out for her. I didn't want to have it collapse with her sitting on it one day very soon. I showed her what the problem was with it and she gave me permission to do what I wanted.

I had no doubt that Oak would have looked great with the black cast iron ends.

We were invited up for a lovely roast dinner at the weekend so I thought I would get the bench done while we were there and this is the result:

Looking fresh, bright and new. It has made a massive difference to the overall appearance and strength using Oak. I used new stainless steel dome headed bolts and used a wax coating on the end grain to seal it up a little. I left the rest as it was as the oak I used was green. I just scrubbed it with a hard brush and some warm water. I used green oak as the bench is always going to be outside in the elements,so with no finish applied the oak will not require any maintenance and will turn a lovely silver over the years.

I am very happy with the way it has turned out and now safe in the knowing that my partners Gran will have a solid garden bench to sit on with friends while they enjoy the sunshine and the garden.

Mallet!

I have been looking for a while now at getting a nice wooden mallet for fine chisel work instead of using a heavy hammer. While on my search for a decent mallet it seemed that all I found was either way to over priced for what it was or very cheap and tacky which and would fall apart after a few projects.

So I decided to make my own! That way I could make it to what I wanted it to do and what I wanted it to look like. I had a rummage around it my stack of small oak off cuts and found a nice chunk of kiln dried 4x2 and a perfect piece for a handle.

I started by cutting the head to size and giving it a 5 degree angle on each end. I took the handle piece and a plane and started to taper it gradually testing the grip until I was happy with the thickness. Next came the measuring and marking out as the idea was to make a mortice right through following the exact sizes of the handle and ensure a perfectly tight fit. I marked the center of the head, top and bottom and sent a 4mm pilot drill through the make sure the hole was straight before sending a flat wood bit through to remove most of the waste.

Next job was to clamp down to head and begin the chisel work to remove the rest of the waste wood and to form the tapered mortice. Once I got to the inside edges of my marking lines I began testing the fit regularly to keep on top of the perfect fit I was after. It wasn't long before I was happy with the fit.

I grabbed a bottle of wood glue and a rubber mallet and placed to head in a vice and roughly worked out where the glue would need to be placed on the handle to sit inside the head. I applied the glue to both pieces and started to tap the handle down from the top until it wedged firmly inside the head piece. The fit was perfect and didn't really need and glue but it is in there anyway for added support.

Waited a few hours for the glue to set before taking some sandpaper to it and taking off all the edges and corners. A nice small coat of Danish oil to bring out the grain and a small amount of wax after it dried finished it off nicely.


 This is the finished mallet :

I am very happy with the result, the weight is just right and it looks a hell of a lot nicer than everything else I was looking at. After a few weeks of use it is still perfect. Still looks brand new and still solid.

It was an easy tool to make which I urge people to try making themselves instead of purchasing those on sale at the moment. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure many on sale are fine and perfect for the job its meant for just in my mind they just didn't work for my personal tastes. So why not try making one!? A basic tool kit and knowledge is all that's needed. Plus it will surely add to the satisfaction of using a tool you made yourself to complete a project!!

I am starting to design a few more pieces to build.

I have been drawing up a few designs lately for items such as a chest of drawers, bedside cabinets, and bed frames. I am considering making a whole set with the same design for a whole basic bedroom set.

The design I am considering is going to take a lot of time. Every face of every section will be detailed heavily to create a complex piece of furniture that will be amazing to just sit and look at.

This is going to take a long time!

My blog is now my website.

I am now using this blog for my website until I get a full website created to use. www.ryondesign.co.uk will now bring you here!

Thank you for visiting.

A website is beginning to be thought about right now.

Using green wood issues.

The first 2 coffee tables I made were made using green oak off cuts. I cut them to size and left them to dry out more before I used them but I couldn't wait that long. I just wanted to build something I designed! But now I can see the issues that have developed which will now have to be sorted out. I spent a lot of time squaring every edge to sit perfectly to each other on the top so minimal joint lines were visible. When I finished the table everything was perfect. But now after 3 months of being in a room temp environment the heat has taken its toll on the water in the Oak that was still there when I made it. It caused everything to shrink which caused all the joints to open up as you can see from this picture. 

I have from this table learned that only seasoned wood will need to be used to make something that will not move in a room. The listed at least 12% MC (moisture content) in wood to be used for interior furniture construction is there for a reason. What happened here with the top shrinking is only 1 of many things that can happen from using green (wet) timber.

I have learned not to use green oak for my work even though I have a regular free off cuts supply
 of this ( A friend of mine has an oak framing business). I am keeping hold of the bits I can use still but storing them to dry them out after cutting them to approximate size so I could possibly use them in the coming years. Remembering the rule of thumb. Every half inch thickness should be left to dry for a year.

A little light reading.

I have been researching and learning at the same time as perfecting my joints in my work. I have been flicking through a great book called Wood Work The complete step-by-step manual. This book shows everything you will ever need. It has very clear images and everything is worded so you instantly understand. From how to sharpen hand tools to building a huge welsh dresser step-by-step.

A great book in my opinion!!

A few pictures now on the gallery page

I have put up 4 pictures of 2 coffee tables I have made in the gallery page.  I will upload a few of my other pieces in the next few days.

Starting it all up.

So... I have finally started to pull my finger out and push forward on my business. Around Christmas time (2010) I began thinking I wanted to make something of myself instead of just having a job that pays the bills. At 27 years old I must admit it has taken a lot longer to come to this point than it should have. I knew that I wanted to create something different using skills that I have developed over the years in the woodworking industry building timber buildings.

I got myself a pad of paper and a pencil and set about designing some furniture. I started with a coffee table that I needed in my living room as the one I had was to big for the space I had. I drew up a few designs and came up with one that me and my partner were happy with. I had the good fortune of having a vast array of tools and machines at my place of work which I could use and a large stack of green oak off cuts that were stacked up ready for being burnt. I swiftly saved all of the wood and set about machining the oak to the sizes I needed.

I knew straight away it was oak that I wanted to work with. I have been involved in many oak framed buildings in my place of work which I really enjoyed doing so oak in my mind was the timber I wanted to build with.

Ever since I started on this first coffee table project I have been amazed at how much I enjoyed doing it. I am not trained as a fine furniture maker but I do have a massive attention to detail that I am committed to uphold. I'm researching and learning through books, magazines and the internet in which I have learned a lot. A big chunk of the information I already knew being in the industry but I am learning and improving on my skills every time I make a new piece.

It has now been 5 months since I started making furniture which have all been coffee tables at the moment which I have been building on the part time basis as I still have my full time job. As of today I have 4 very unique designs that are strong, solid, interesting and different. Very different to anything out there at the moment and I have had a lot of positive feedback.

This weekend has been time for me to get myself a blog and a website domain to get my furniture on show.

This is where I am at the moment. I have many designs drafted up which I am excited about making a start on. I hope to get a handful of coffee tables, a few bed frames and a selection a garden furniture made in the coming weeks/ months all from solid oak.