In part three of the series on Calvin’s desk, I concentrate on the desk top, the back and putting it all together. In making the top, I glue two pieces of 5/8 inch Russian birch plywood together to make a stiff solid top. I flush trim a piece of marker board to the shape of the plywood to make the writing surface. The market board is not glued down so it could be replaced in the future. To make the back, I cut out seven pieces of English walnut. Each of these pieces gets an arch cut into it. I glue these pieces together with the grain running perpendicular to the length of the piece. For the shelf in the back, I glue alternating pieces of black and English walnut together to make an abstract railroad track. The grain also runs perpendicular to the length of the piece. When bringing the desk inside, it turned out it was too big to navigate through the house. I had to take it apart to get into Calvin’s room. Calvin loves his new desk and I had a lot of fun doing this project.
