Maple and Walnut Crib

I made this crib for my son who is due to arrive late January. I convinced my wife that I needed a mortiser for this project, so the rails, legs, and slats are all assembled with that technique. The back legs are glued and pinned to the headboard and the front legs to the front rails. The side rails are just deeply mortised and pinned into the legs in order to be removable to create a regular headboard and footboard for a bed later, with a longer single board for a mattress support. The rails and legs are made from a couple 10” by 12’, 8/4 boards purchased at my favorite sawmill in central Ohio. They also have a room with planed and/or sanded boards with a little more figure or that are more unique species, and that’s where I found the 14” by 10’ walnut board for the headboard, though it wasn’t in “the plan” at that time. It just had some amazing grain and I knew I needed it for some project. Same story for the curly maple used in the headboard. The headboard was assembled after tongue-and-grooving the maple and walnut pieces on my router table and it’s such a shame that the grain in back looks at least as good as the front side of it. The slats are from a piece of 8/4 wormy maple left over from my first Maloof rocker and the bassinet I made for my son earlier this fall. I enjoy having different projects become “cousins” based on the batch of wood that keeps being used for different projects over a few years. I resawed the piece to make the slats 5/8” thick, so they were basically quarter-sawn, which really exposed the hidden curl in that material, unfortunately best viewed from the floor, looking upwards. I finished the project with one “coat” of Watco Danish oil followed by four coats of Minwax satin Wipe-on Poly. I’ve never used the Danish oil before, but as an initial oil coat to bring the grain out and make it more transparent, I think it’s awesome. Definitely not a water-resistant top coat, at least not with just one coat, but’s a fantastic base for something a little harder.