Book Stand From A Combined Effort

A good friend of mine made one of these and I wanted to make one for my wife. After he showed me how you make it though, I was a little discouraged. The way to make these involves chisels hand saws. I don't do hand tools. I would love too. I am fascinated with the skill that goes into creating things strictly out of hand tools like they did before the invention of all the power tools. I have tried though and my messed up back doesn't allow that. So I stick to my power tools. So my friend came up with an idea.

He lives about forty five minutes from me, but comes to visit from time to time. So he done the chisel work on this book stand and brought it to me. Then I cut the unicorn design in it. On his next visit, he done the hand saw work on it, leaving me to just do some sanding and finish work to complete it.

Some of you may look at this project and wonder why all the work for such a simple project. You could probably easily create something much easier to build that will accomplish the same job. I like things that are different though. This book stand is made using one solid piece of wood. There is no kind of fasteners like nails or screws. It is just a piece of wood with some angles cut into it. If you look closely you can see these angles in the last photo. Then after slicing it down the middle it opens up to create a simple book stand.

This is designed for the kitchen. The last photo shows how it folds up to be placed out of the way into a drawer. Then it can be taken out and opened up to place a book, cook book for example, on it. This keeps the book up off the counter top so you don't have to worry about it getting into spilled liquids or getting in the way.

I also enjoyed making a project with a buddy that lives that far away without actually being in the same shop at the same time. It made for an interesting time. It also gave us a reason to meet up and kill a few pots of coffee.