Sometimes you just have to take deep breaths. This is what I told myself today after completely ruining a project in the finishing stage. Learning how wood grain behaves has been a humbling and frustrating process, but I'm getting there. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the process, but I seem to have a tough time leaving well enough alone. Sometimes, one more pass is one too many.

So, after starting from scratch, I was able to finish shaping my first tapered column lamp base. After doing it a couple of times, I'm starting to get a good feeling for the hand plane. Melissa noticed that this lamp base was much more defined than my first attempt. It's not perfect, but I shouldn't complain too much. I'm sure the next one will be even better :)