Making a rustic walnut writing desk

This video is about making a rustic walnut writing desk for an article in Woodwork Magazine in October 2005. Its features include a one piece slab top, textured with a rotary chisel. A base using my torsion rod technique for strength and stability, and a lap drawer and drawer support box made with hand cut dovetails.

Selling stuff.

A reader asked a very good question and one about which I can offer almost no help.

He said he's been making lots of boxes inspired by some of the ideas in my books and has been giving them to family and friends. Because there are two festivals at which he would like to sell his work, he wondered about how to price his boxes. I can tell you how to cut a dovetail joint,  but how to price one's work is a difficult question that's beyond me to answer while the world is so overrun with so much inexpensively manufactured stuff.

I responded as follows:

I  know nothing quality of your work, or the market and level of interest in buying it. High quality craft shows will bring a higher value generally than selling in your local farmer’s market. Are you well  known in your community and have some kind of following? Being good friends with lots of folks can help. 

The old tried and true business approach would be to look at your boxes in relation to time, materials and overhead expenses… What is an hourly rate that you are comfortable with, and what do your materials cost? Is your time sitting in a booth trying to sell worth anything? If you are thinking of a business, and not just a hobby there are expenses involved.  As a pure hobby,  booth sitting and attempting to sell your work may be worth something to you as a social outlet. If that’s not the case your pricing should include payment for time selling it and the costs of exhibiting it. I've done many shows where the cost of doing the show ate up all the profit I'd hoped to make.

There are also factors of efficiency. If you are really fast and efficient you might be able to sell at a lower price, though the individual boxes may hold less meaning for you or for others. If your boxes are extremely well crafted and creative with your own designs, perhaps  a higher price might be in order.

I can offer no easy formula. You might look at what similar products are selling for in the shows you’re proposing for yourself. And of course, there’s the thing of just selling at any cheap price to get rid of it so you can make more… Giving your work to charity auctions, can be a good way to offload inventory and clear the decks for even better work.

That’s about the best I can offer. I recently put my products on Etsy for 25% off sale. They weren’t selling, so I’ve lowered the price and the discount helped. Customers will ultimately decide what your boxes are worth to them, and that will help you decide their price and out of frustration you may decide to continue giving them to friends. 

Here in Eureka Springs we seem to have more non-profit organizations than any place else on earth, and my wife frequently shops in my box storage for things to be sold to benefit others.

Make, fix and create...

Making a buffet table part 5

This video shows using a 14 degree dovetail bit in the router table to form dovetailed drawer guides to fit on the underside of a spalted sycamore plank being used to make a buffet table.

Buffet table part 4

This is part 4 of making a buffet table and illustrates routing dovetail shaped grooves for sliding dovetail drawer guides to fit.

Making a sliding dovetail router guide Buffet table part 3

This is part 3 of making a buffet table. In it I construct a router guide for routing the sliding dovetails on the underside of the top.

A simple joint SD 480p #woodworking

This shows a simple joint I'm using to connect the front and back to the ends of small chapel shaped reliquary boxes.

Building a buffet table part 2

This is part two of making a buffet table using a plank of spalted sycamore.

Designing straight from the wood

This video shows the very beginning of the design process, designing straight from the wood.

shed

 https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/discover/inspired-to-make/mens-shed/episode-one-1020677109

Handscrew vise

Woodworkers never start out with all the things we think we might need, so we exercise ingenuity and grow stronger and more creative in the process, making do with what we have. Lacking a real woodworking bench, this is how I started, and it's also a great way to get your kids started, too. Featured as a tip in Fine Woodworking #313, December 2024