A Conversation with Mr. Finding Silver Pennies & his Workbench

I know it’s usually me you hear from on the blog, but a huge part of the blog and our home is my husband. I thought it would be fun to share a conversation with Mr. Finding Silver Pennies and also share the beautiful workbench he built!

For those of you who don’t know him, this is Luke, my husband! We’ve been married almost 17 years and we met at the University of Bristol during my junior year abroad. During the day he’s a software engineer which is super helpful when you’re a blogger. He also created my logo and helped me set up my site. On nights and weekends, he is a woodworker. 😉

I said it before and I’ll say it again. Sometimes we have hidden gifts and talents that we didn’t know were in us. We all do. We’re all creative and it’s my hope with this blog that I’ll help you guys find your inner creativity (if you haven’t already tapped into it). Perhaps, you read this post last week. I talked about finding my own creativity through the blog, but I also talked about motherhood, fear of failure and a whole host of other things.

The only reason I can do what I do and experiment with my creative side is because of my husband and my kids. Luke started dabbling in woodworking when I was dreaming about furniture for our home. The teak table and benches had too hefty a price tag so he built me some.

You can find the reveal here and the build plans here and here.

I wanted a small cabinet to store laundry detergent and fabric softener but we have the world’s tiniest bathroom. He built it for me.

Build plans here.

We’ve included a few affiliate links for your convenience, you can read my full disclosure policy here. If you purchase via a link I may receive a portion of the sale.

Well, I’m really proud of my husband. Each piece of furniture he builds is somehow better than the last. I thought it was time to have a proper chat. We chatted over lunch in our kitchen.

A conversation with Mr. Finding Silver Pennies

What made you want to start woodworking?

I really enjoy the way wood feels and that you can make cool things out of it.

How long have you been building furniture?

Ikea for years 😉 The first stuff I built was when we got the Kreg Jig pocket hole system, which was about 4 or 5 years ago now. I built an outdoor table and benches and the indoor console table. These were simple pocket hole joints and the jig made construction easy. The projects stemmed from a necessity for building furniture we couldn’t afford to buy.

When did your interest become more serious?
The big jump was creating the farmhouse dining table. We bought a thickness plane and a small jointer. We also invested in reclaimed heart pine and it was fun to learn how to joint the tabletop. The basement smelled amazing! That was almost 2 years ago and now I only see the problems with the table.

Farmhouse Dining Table – see post here

Aw, I love that table. It’s one of my favorites that you’ve built. Can you talk a little more about your latest project?
I wanted a workbench so I can start doing more interesting projects. I considered buying one but my friend, Matt O’Neill of Broken Fingers Woodworking. said, “No, you have to build one.” This was great advice. He pointed me to BenchCrafted.com to get plans and has been giving me invaluable advice all the way through the project.

The workbench you built is truly stunning? I’m in awe of your abilities both with woodworking and carving. Can you share more about the process?
It took more than a year overall with a few hiatuses here and there (as we were busy landscaping the pool etc). It was a lot more work than I expected. It was important to pick strong but affordable wood, it’s a workbench after-all and not a finished cabinet. I used soft maple to construct it. I create a lot of joints – mortise and tenons and had to laminate a lot of wood together which is a process I didn’t know anything about before.

If people are interested these are the plans I used.

You did an amazing job at carving your initials and the year into the vice chop. What was that like?
Scariest part of the whole thing. The vice chop itself took a lot of time and energy construct. I laminated the wood and made holes in very specific locations and it would be many, many hours to redo it. So I was terrified of messing it up. This is the first time I carved anything. I used a chip carving knife to carve. I first did a practice on a spare piece of wood and printed the wording on a sheet as guide.

What did you wish you knew before you started woodworking?
How much the tools cost! Ha! Ha! I got a lot of guidance from Matt on what tools to buy first. Having his mentorship has really helped. Also read everything by Christopher Schwarz. I have this book and it’s great. I also love this other book by Nick Offerman.

One thing I would have liked to have known before is how much dust woodworking makes. I should have bought a vortex separator to attach to the shop vac so I didn’t go through so many bags.

Matt also pointed me toward Lie-Nielson tools, which is both a blessing and a curse. Now I want to spend every penny I have on tools from them. They make heirloom quality hand tools.

What’s next for you?
Next, we’re building a game table for the playroom for the boys and, finally a coffee table for the living room. We already have the wood!

What do you plan on doing with the Black Walnut? Any ideas yet?
You tell me!

I was thinking maybe a bookshelf or live edge bench might be nice for our home. What else are you hoping to do with it?
I want to try doing inlays at some point. The look like fun!

What advice would you give somebody at home?
Start small and simple. Kreg Jig and Ana White have great plans to start learning how construct and build. Use white pine because it’s cheap and it doesn’t really matter if you mess up. Also, cedar is great for outdoors for the same reason. Don’t buy cheap tools. It’s better to have fewer better tools. It’s a good idea to do local classes, too, to further your knowledge. I’m planning on doing a tool sharpening class at North Bennet Street School in Boston and also want to do their introduction to fine woodworking.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this chat with Luke. Now that this workbench is done I need to get on with cleaning out the basement so he has more room for woodworking. Ha! Ha! One of our goals for 2019!

If you guys have any more questions for Luke please leave them in the comments. Or if you have any questions or comments for myself you can either leave them in the comments or send me an email.

I can’t wait to see what he builds next!