A friend of mine has asked me to build a bench as a gift for his wife. He saw a picture of one that I had built several years ago and was interested in it. It is a small bench that can be used for seating purposes, but it also does well as a small hall table, plant stand, or end table. The unique element of this project is the multiple species inlay on the top. In this example, the inlay is maple and walnut in a shape of an oak leaf.

The story of the bench in the picture is interesting in the fact that it was made from a large black oak that had fallen on my brother’s farm. The tree was quite large and in a difficult location on one of his steep hillsides. In Lincoln county, steep means “hold onto a sapling or tree branch so you don’t tumble down the hill”.

We were able to get several nice saw logs out of the tree and milled over 300 board feet. The black oak really had some nice ray fleck and had quite a few worm holes. A nice look if you are into that.

The oak leaf inlay on the top was made from spalted maple and walnut. A simple poly finish gave it the protection needed for potted plants and kids scooting across the top of it.

I am anxious to see how this new bench turns out.

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