I try and keep an eye out for projects that would make good Christmas gifts that folks would appreciate that don't take too much work per unit. Paul Sellers had a video series on making small serving trays that work well for a coffee and a few cookies, a location to place one's key and pocket contents when coming home, or even for holding some smaller size tools.
As such, I decided to make them (Figure 1). I got a late start on these (end of Nov) which immediately stresses me out). For these, I went to the local Woodcraft and purchased 1/2" thick stock. To make things a bit more interesting to me I purchased some woods I had never worked with before (aromatic cedar, basswood, Sapele, mesquite) and some I have used a fair bit (cherry and maple). I was curious how the new to me woods would be have. The cedar produced amazing ribbons off the hand plane that had a really smooth feel almost as if it was plastic.
Figure 1 Paul Sellers small wooden trays.
As for the construction itself, it is straight forward with bridle type joints and screws from the bottom. I did a couple coats of shellac and then wax via 0000 steel wool. They came out nice and folks loved them.
As I write this, summer is coming to an end and I have no idea for Christmas 2020 gifts. If any of you have ideas, please leave me a comment below. Thanks. We shall see what happens. I don't see it as a failure if I can't come up with hand made gifts so I'm not too stressed about it.
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