A bench can teach a lot of lessons.

I was recently commissioned to create a bench for a co-worker. This project started with some rough sewn white oak lumber. I found this to be a fun project as I was given lots of freedom to let my style show. I designed this bench with all classic joinery. This was a great learning experience as I started by having to flatten out the lumber and smooth it out squaring up all the sides. I then went to work on the joinery. The top is joined using wedged through mortise and tenons while the lower section is attached using keyed through mortise and tenons. The keys are created out of cherry. All the tenons are hand sewn and chopped out by hand at an 80 degree angle. The mortises were drilled out and cleaned up by hand. The following pictures show off my work to date. I will be adding more pictures when I get the finishing done.