First time working with hardwood

I made a bread box over the past few days or so and it is beginning to look usable.  I have found that working with hardwood is almost like working with mild steel, tons of work with hand tools but I have learned a lot and I think I can do better next time.  I kind of made the design as I went, I was originally going to make a square but Shay thought it might be a bit bland so we went with the new shape and it looks better than I think my original design would have looked.  The grain in the wood looks amazing, the pictures really do not do it justice at all.

The whole thing was made from reclaimed wood, it looked like an old dresser or something that had been pulled apart and sent to the dump, when I saw it I had a feeling that all it needed was a power sander and a whole lot of time to make it look good again.  It came up much better than I thought it would.

I tried 3 handles before finally settling on the fourth one, it looks much better than the others as it screws on from the inside instead of the outside like its predecessors.

I really need to get a nice straight bench too, the one I threw together when we got here is warped, mostly because I made it with warped wood but everything I make on this bench has a slight wobble and its making me crazy.