Ambrosia Maple Craftsman Fire-Side Bench
This I created for my personal use, using a single 8/4 12' long 12" wide Ambrosia Maple board I hand-picked from my favorite lumber mill yard.
They planed and rough cut it for me, then I squared and straightened, sanded, and marked the pieces for fine working. I cut the mortises by hand with chisels, cut the tenons and dado joints on a table saw, and fit them using files. The final product has oak 3/8" dowel pins in the top tenos, to guard against any warping of the top piece. I hand sanded and finished the surfaces using Danish Oil that I sanded into the surfaces, then a final coat of wax for that 3-D sheen.
Piece retains a slightly rustic feel, due to the deep figuring of the wood itself, the heavy joinery style, and slight "distressing" imparted to the surface created by leaving subtle traces of the working process, such as saw blade marks and other remnants of the creation process.