Ejler's Shop

Ejler Hjorth-Westh is an instructor at CR. He was a biology teacher in Denmark before coming to the states to build boats, houses and eventually furniture. A few students and I recently ventured out to his shop in Elk to send off a bed he was just completing. He noted that finishing a project can be anti-climatic because you spend months of your life pouring yourself into a piece, and then it's done and shipped to the client's home without ado. I think he was happy to celebrate the completion of the piece with us, and it was great for us to see Ejler's shop and talk about the bed. 

The bed is made out of madrone and redwood burl, the same woods I'm using in my cabinet. It has a really cool joint that connects the side rails to the headboard and footboard. The rail has a modified, angled tenon that slides into an angled mortise. A wedge drives the two pieces into a locking fit. You can see the unfinished joint on the bed (it has yet to be shaped and finished) and the dismantled test joint (lying on its side) in the photos below.

In addition to talking about the bed, Ejler showed us his boat and talked about the boat-building class he's offering this spring. The class will build a boat similar to the dory in the picture, only slightly longer to accommodate a three-person crew. How cool would it be to build your own boat?