While I’m planning out and starting on the nightstand set to match the bed, I’m taking on a small project in the interim. It will be made with persimmon wood, an incredibly hard wood from the small fruit tree native to the U.S. and a relative of ebony. Can you guess what it is?

I bought this in rough sawn for from a guy I found on Craigslist who owns a tree cutting service and mills some of what he cuts. Persimmon can be very difficult to find, and the trees are small. As you can see, there’s not really a straight reference edge on this, so we will need to make one.

Lay a long straight board on it so that you maximize the workable area and minimize waste. Then, using the circular saw technique we used for the bed, saw this line.

Now we have a straight reference line. Run it on your table saw to make both sides parallel. I also used my mitre saw to chop the bit of rot off this side.

Now to begin planing! You can do this by hand, but I really just did enough to clean it up. I intend on taking it to the Woodworker’s guild shop and running it on a jointer and planer to true everything up.

Stay tuned!