iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 8h

Isn’t too late to pick up a new hobby! Here’s ten pieces that I built the frames for just last summer. I can’t even imagine what it would have cost to pay a professional to frame all these.

Ten pieces of art framed in a variety of wooden frames.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Nightstands completed! Wish I was as good at photography as I am at woodworking (still not that great!). Carcass, legs, and drawer faces are all made from solid walnut; I chose a nice plywood for the drawer boxes instead of dovetailed hardwood, because I don’t hate myself. Not as cheap as IKEA.

Two walnut mid-century modern night stands.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I’m trying a thing: counting my hours spent on a woodworking project, hopefully helps with estimating level of effort on future builds. So far, 16.5 hours on the latest idea: a matching set of solid walnut (not veneered plywood) bedside tables. Still prototyping what the drawers should look like.

A walnut bedside table under construction. A piece of cardboard fills the space where drawers should be.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

@metasynchronic.bsky.social kindly gave me a restored Stanley No. 3 (type 19) hand plane for my birthday a month ago. I’m happy to report that I finally found the perfect opportunity to test it out on a real woodworking project. Performed marvelously!

A large-ish pile of walnut wood shavings.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Six hours of woodworking to turn several small boards into two bigger boards.

Two large (18”x80”) boards of black walnut, sitting on a workshop table.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

47 board-feet of 5/4” walnut. Kicking off my next woodworking project.

Seven thick boards of walnut, ready to be loaded into the back of an SUV.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I spent the last week trying, and mostly failing, to find cool (temperature) times to do some woodworking in the garage workshop. Finished this memorial box for our beloved dog Magnus. Grain-matched hard maple, with a walnut burl veneer, walnut splines, walnut interior, and walnut trim.

A grain-matched maple box with a walnut burl lid and walnut splines.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Finished the second table two weeks ago. Pretty happy with how this set of nesting end tables turned out. This project was the first time that I’ve done any woodworking with honey locust, and I am happily surprised by how much I like the final result; the tone and grain pattern look amazing IRL!

An end table, roughly cubical, with a thick walnut slab top and legs fashioned from honey locust.

An end table, roughly cubical, with a thick honey locust slab top and legs fashioned from walnut.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Legs have now been cut to length for the second of the nesting end tables. I used dominos for the joinery on the larger table, but I think dowels will be good enough for this one; I don’t need the structure to be THAT strong. Will have the base glued together in the next 24 hours.

An end table in progress: walnut legs, honey locust top, currently held together with clamps.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Been slacking in the workshop for the last week or two; yard and house projects have needed attention. Time to refocus! With a little woodworking magic and a lot of sawdust, this should be an end table by next weekend.

A square, smooth block of honey locust, and a few rough slabs of walnut.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Meryem’s sitting spot, with a walnut sofa table I made, a walnut end table I made, a walnut C-table I made, and a walnut C-table I made. Not pictured but in the same room: a walnut bench I made, a walnut blanket chest I made, and a walnut chess board/box I made. Woodworking problems…

A white, fluffy dog sitting on a burgundy leather chair. There are several walnut end tables nearby.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

For the last year, I’ve had a few leftover slabs in the workshop, some honey locust and black walnut, just waiting for the right woodworking project. Two-ish weeks ago, I started a pair of nesting end tables. Making steady progress; toughest part so far was using the CNC to flatten the slab tops.

A rough slab of walnut lumber; a square drawn in white chalk demonstrates the approximate dimensions of an end table top.

Two adjacent squares of roughly cut lumber, the larger is walnut and the smaller slab is honey locust.

A CNC midway through flattening a square block of hardwood.

An end table midway through construction. Clamps everywhere.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Interior has room for 20 pens. Five per tray, and they stack. I convinced myself that cutting the grooves with a router would be a nightmare, so it was a pleasant surprise how easy that process was.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Spent about a month on this custom box for my wife’s birthday, to store her pen collection. This was my first woodworking project using a veneered panel, but not my last; I love the marbled effect of the burl wood grain, and the maple trim highlights the wood’s natural colors even more.

A walnut box with a walnut burl panel lid. The corners are decorated with maple dowels.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Working on this (not a surprise) box build for my wife’s birthday, destined to hold a portion of her pen collection. A LOT of work went into installing the hinges and ensuring the lid stays perfectly aligned with the box. In woodworking, the least impressive things can be the hardest to execute.

A box made of walnut with maple accents, and a walnut burl veneer panel incorporated into the lid.

A box made of walnut with maple accents, and a walnut burl veneer panel incorporated into the lid. The box is open.

A close up shot of the hinges installed in a walnut box. It is… messy.

Jigs and clamps, demonstrating the process of this in-progress box build.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Aw, friend sent me a pic of their gift in the wild. Feels good when my time spent woodworking makes someone else’s life a tiny bit better.

A walnut pizza peel with a cooked pepperoni pizza on top.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Didn’t go overboard with holiday crafting, but I did make these three pizza peels for my best friends. Pretty happy with how these turned out. In terms of woodworking complexity, not particularly challenging, except for safely cutting the tapered edges, which required a new jig for the table saw.

Three pizza peels, on different styles and shapes.

A pizza peel made from contrasting strips of walnut and cherry. A video game controller in the background for scale.

Several pipe clamps and hand clamps being used to glue together a pizza peel.

The rough shape of a pizza peel, sketched out on wood strips with white chalk, before glue-up.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

75 terrifying seconds of the CNC cutting a juice groove into an endgrain cutting board. This is one of my least favorite tasks in woodworking, and the machine performed admirably once we got everything out of its way. @arrdem.com deserves full credit for believing this was possible.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

But succeed feels so good. Or, in this case, success feels so flat.

A guy smiling while standing proudly besides a machine that has recently shocked him with a bolt of static electricity.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

With t-track and spoilboards added to the CNC table, the time had come for another (final) flattening job. @arrdem.com tweaked the machine’s script, we made a few minor cable routing tweaks to avoid snags, and hit the “GO” button. No problems to report. Except the visible arcs of electricity.

A CNC router flattening the surface of an MDF tabletop.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Six rows of t-track laid on top of our reference surface, with 18mm of mdf as material that can be safely chewed up (roughly 7 or 8 mm before the cutting tool could hit the t-track). Time to cobble together clamping options.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

I used Rubio monocoat on this walnut bench. Super easy to apply, just mix it up, apply, and then buff off. Odie’s Oil is very similar. I highly recommend it if you’re stressed about evenly applying a varnish; just make sure to really buff the wood with a clean cloth to remove any excess finish.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Some woodworking process shots for anyone that enjoys that sort of thing:

Lots of picture frames combining multiple corners.

More picture frames glued and clamped, with a whole lot of extra clamps to ensure squareness.

Glueing in splines to the corners of each frame to provide additional strength.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Nearing completion on my latest woodworking project: picture frames combining multiple wood types. Half of these frames are for my Sargent prints that have been gathering dust, and the other half are a custom job for a friend. Some still need mattes and plexiglass, but that part is easy/boring.

A tabletop covered with an assortment of homemade picture frames, crafted from walnut, cherry, and maple.

A different view of the same picture frames.

A closer shot of a glossy walnut and cherry picture frame, with John Singer Sargent’s “La Carmencita” displayed inside.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

After last month’s cherry/walnut picture frame scratched that creative woodworking itch, I’m diving deeper down the rabbit hole. Currently have a half dozen unique profiles, and I’m happy to report that these are both entertaining and a great way to burn through scrap wood that needs a purpose.

A hand-drawn print of an octopus, in a walnut and cherry picture frame.

Multiple examples of picture frame profiles, cut from walnut, cherry, and maple.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

This Lowrider CNC v4 from @v1engineering.bsky.social, built with an incredible amount of work by @arrdem.com, is nearly operational. A crazy tool to drop into my deeply unprofessional, garage-workshop woodworking situation. Can’t wait to see what sort of trouble we can get up to with this machine.

A CNC strut placed on an mdf and plywood table. Several buckets of scrap wood sit on the garage floor underneath.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

This weekend, I finished the two-wood picture frame and hung it on the wall. I still need to cut a glass pane, but this is good enough for now. Learned a lesson or two along the way. I find it quite satisfying when I can use my woodworking setup to replace the things I (frequently) drop and break.

A portrait in a homemade picture frame made from walnut and cherry, hanging on a wall.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

The replacement picture frame project continues to go (mostly) according to plan. I’m not looking forward to all the sanding required to remove the burn marks.

A lithograph portrait in an incomplete picture frame made from walnut and cherry picture.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

My first time trying out this technique of using the table saw to make a cove cut. This setup felt less scary than I anticipated, and I’m always happy to figure out a new woodworking technique that won’t cost me a finger.

A length of walnut with a shallow coved cut. A table saw in the background has several boards and clamps attached.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Waterfall bench finished this morning. Absolutely nowhere in the house to put it, but what can ya do? Such a simple concept, but transforming this cracked slab of black walnut into a usable piece of furniture ended up being one of my favorite woodworking projects so far.

A walnut bench sitting outside in the sun.

Photo highlighting the waterfall edge of a walnut bench.

A rough piece of unfinished walnut lumber sitting on a workbench.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

Was going to say this exact thing. I’ve also occasionally filled a larger gap in my dovetails with a very thin sliver of wood. Almost invisible once it’s sanded and finished.

Zoomed-in picture of a dovetail that has been repaired to fix a gap.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

I think these are the biggest strawberries I’ve ever held in my life.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

About eight hours into my latest woodworking project: an “artsy fan c-table” made from salvaged black walnut and maple. This mad tangle of clamps somehow was the easiest way I found to properly align the legs with the upper panel. Next step will be marking out where I need to cut 20 unique grooves.

An unfinished woodworking project: many thin strips of maple clamped to two walnut boards with a variety of pipe clamps

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Building my own chessboard ended up being a months-long project (started in January!). Woodworking feels like one of the slowest, most expensive way to clutter up the house.

An intricately patterned chessboard with a set of medieval chess pieces, ready to play.

An intricately patterned chessboard, sitting on top of a walnut box.

A full set of chess pieces. Packed in foam, fit inside of a walnut box.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

4x timelapse of me applying the first coat of shellac to a chessboard build I’ve finally gotten around to completing. Fun.

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Hugin Handmade @tsothoga.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

A whole bunch of wood (mostly walnut) to work with on whatever projects I can think of, especially once the weather warms up and the workshop isn’t so dang cold.

Rough boards of walnut, maple, and cherry, stacked up on a workshop table.

Six slabs of roughly cut walnut, of varying sizes and shapes. A small dog sits nearby.

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