My best friend, Josh, is studying to become a commissioned lay pastor. When I started woodworking a few years ago, he asked me to make him a book stand. For various reasons, it took me forever to get around to it. Finally, after I knew he had given up on me, I found a nice book stand in a woodworking magazine and decided I was ready to start.

I didn't go strictly by the plan, but I used many of the same details. I wanted to add an inlay to the top and carve some text into the underside because I didn't want it to be just a book stand.

First, I milled up some walnut scraps which came from a pile of stump chunks I bought at an auction for three bucks. I managed to find just enough decent wood out of what I had left. As an added bonus, the walnut turned out to have some nice curly figure. Once I glued up what would be the surface/top of the stand and shaped the legs, I went ahead and started in on the inlay. This probably wasn't the smartest thing to do since a small mistake on the legs would cause it to wobble and force me to start the project over. If the inlay was done at that point, the time would be wasted. However, I was itching to try my hand at this and it would be good practice even if I did have to do it over.

I chose some birdseye maple from a stack of veneer I picked up at another auction for five bucks. (See second image below.)

I cut the recessed inlay hole by hand using a chisel to rough it out and a hand router to finish it to the exact proper depth. It was easy to set the router's cutter to the proper depth by using a piece of the veneer and setting the front of the router on it. Then, I adjusted the cutter to touch the surface of my bench. This gave me the exact depth equal to the thickness of the veneer.

Here is the finished inlay trench completed.

I cut the veneer pieces to rough size on my band saw and trimmed it to fit with a low angle block plane. Once the pieces were ready, I glued them in with standard yellow Titebond glue and clamped across the entire surface with some scrap melamine. I used this for its slick, anti-glue properties, just in case it wanted to try and stick and pry the veneer back off when I took the clamps off. It worked great and the surface was nearly seamless even before I did any sanding. I was quite pleased with the result.

Boring and fitting the dowels to attach the top to the legs.

Carving. This is another technique which was completely new to me on this project. I think it turned out ok for a first try. Once I practice sharpening my V carving tool, I think my carving will get better. I carved Josh's initials into the back as well as a Bible verse reference: Proverbs 27:17.

Gluing on the lip of the stand, so the book won't slide off in use.

The third picture below shows the chamfers I cut into the backs of the legs. This was also in the original design from the magazine and I liked it, so I included it on the book stand.

All the glue-up and assembly is complete at this point. (See below)

Complete and finished. The last picture shows Josh with the stand. I gave it to him that day and he really seemed to like it alot.

Lastly, I thought I would throw in a then-and-now picture here. Josh and I have been friends since we were 14. We're 33 now. I can't imagine a better friend.