Craftsmanship in Wood

Paul,

is that white oak or red oak?

It is white oak and it's a bit disappointing. Lots of checks and splits. There is going to be a lot of waste. I has planed down nicely. I was going to just plane a little and leave some of the weathered wood showing but opted for planing it all the way down. Some of it is thick enough to make some dai.
It was common practice to set up a sawmill where barns were going to be built and the boards nailed up green (which led to wood not being good for what I'm trying to use it for). The barn on the farm I grew up on had oak structure with all walnut siding. It is so weathered now there's no hope of salvage.

The material planed. The sides and ends are 9/16" and the material for the bottoms and the interior trays and dividers are 5/16". There was less waste than expected. I think the oak is going to look fine.

Is that the Dewalt 12.5" shoebox? That's a great little planer.

Good to see things underway - nice work!

Originally I wanted the Makita, but this has been a great planer. I have put miles of wood through it and it has been a money maker. I found a nail in this stack of wood. I thought I was so careful. I have 3 sets of knives so there's no down time. I just completed a planer knife sharpening jig modeled after one I found on the internet. I will have to give credit to the guy when I refind the site.

I planed this lumber quite some time ago. I assumed that this wood being about 100yrs old would not have anymore internal stresses. After planing, some of it curled like bacon which let to a lot of hand planing and re-thickness planing. Instead of 9/16" I have split, reglued and planed to just over 1/2". This wood is very frustrating but is sentimental as it came from a barn that was the site of a 20yr ongoing cruelty investigation that ended in frustration for me. (Kansas animal cruelty laws need "rewording".) Google "Leawood Stables" there are several news stories about this place and its owner. Blah, blah I could go on and on (owner died and the place was torn down now the animals are in a better place).
I am trudging on and I have the ends, sides, bottoms, and handle milled with tenons. I will be cutting the mortises soon. I am having problems posting photos, I keep getting a message the photos are to large. Any suggestions and how to resize and attach?

Paul,

depending upon what type of computer you have, there may be a resizing application tucked away in there somewhere. I have a Mac and use a free downloadable resizer called 'Small Image II' (http://download.cnet.com/SmallImage/300 ... 55684.html) - works like a charm. Typically, you might want to size images to a 600~800pixel width, a file size of around 150kb or so. I'm sure there are free resizers for PC's as well, and there are some online services which offer resizing. Just Google 'resize images' or something like that.

I assumed that this wood being about 100yrs old would not have anymore internal stresses.

Assumptions can be a bitch with solid wood. Sorry to hear about the struggle with the barn wood.

Here I have started milling the ends, sides, and handles.

I am continuing to mill the tenons. I am thinking any wood would be better than this wood as it has a tendency split when routing on end grain.

In between paying projects, the toolbox is progressing nicely.