Each year, my son makes a gift for his teacher. Here is the 2020 tale as written by him.
In May 2019 my dad cut down 2 Cypress trees and the wood sat in our driveway for way too long.
After the wood was out of the driveway some went in the attic to dry. When we were getting the wood for the project my dad fell through the ceiling! 🙂
Here I cut the board that we chose into a smaller piece using my favorite saw ( Stanley 15″ saw ) because it cuts on both the push and pull stroke. ( The dog probably stole the scrap from that board.)
Dropping the saw low to the cut line increases accuracy, but reduces speed.
Here I use the router to flatten the board.
Here i use the electric sander to sand the board to make it flat and smooth.
I mixed StoneCoat Countertop Epoxy (resin and hardener) along with some crater lake blue tint to fill the bigger gaps in the knots.
Pouring the epoxy is fun.
The BEST part!!! Using the blow torch (Bernzomatic Trigger Start propane torch ) to pop the bubbles as they form.
The heat makes the gas in the bubble expand, and pop. Whatever you do, don’t hit the tape with the torch.
I pulled the tape off and now we need to sand it to make the epoxy level.
When you put the first coat of Tung oil on it makes the wood look so shiny and magical.
The knots always absorb the most Tung oil, and sometimes we need to pour an entire cap-full on them.
Four coats of Half & Half Tung Oil (Tung oil cut with orange solvent) followed by two coats of Odie’s Oil makes it waterproof and food safe.
The board also makes a good shield to keep the cameraman away.
For handles on this board, we forged hand twisted handles out of barn spikes. I used my Simond Store Forge to get the iron orange hot.
Then we twist the hot iron to create the spiral shape. It took about 7 heats to get the handle fully twisted. (It would have taken less, but we did not want to break the handle.)
We used solid copper nails to hold the handles to the board. They were a bit too long so we had to trim them to length first.
To mushroom over the ends of the nails so they would stay in the wood, we used the iron block as a backer to drive the nails against.
Pounding the nails into the wood, and the iron block is underneath, hidden from view in this photo.
Things coming along nicely.
The copper nails look very decorative against the black forged iron handles.
Here’s what the nails look like from the backside. Mushroomed slightly keeps them in place.
Ta-da!
I hope my teacher likes this.
My list of firsts for this project:
- blacksmithing a twist
- using Odie’s Oil
- hammering copper nails
- witnessing my Dad falling through the attic
Previously
- Florida Chainsaw Mill
Anybody who is into natural woodworking is likely familiar with the “Alaskan Chainsaw Mill.” Carried into the wilderness, slung over a well muscled shoulder and ready to turn logs into lumber. These mills made by Granberg and others are impressive, but that is just not how we roll down in Florida. We are grayer, more […]
- Finished: Slab sided floating top river-desk
Now that all the pieces are done for this desk, it is time to assemble. The problem is that the slab sides are quite heavy and the top with the attached stretchers is very heavy so it has to be assembled in-place and I had no free hands to take assembly photos. The assembly, if […]
- Slab Side Legs
In August 2018, I was taking my morning walk with my dog around our neighborhood. I spied several people with chainsaws and safety gear. Then I saw their target. A double trunked water oak…. my precious. I spoke to Steve of Steve’s Tree & Hauling and inquired if it was headed for lumber mill or […]
- Stretchers for a Floating Desktop
The desk top for my son’s river desk is kiln dried Southern Yellow Pine. The uprights for it are 2″+ thick red oak that was cut and milled less than a year ago. Most woodworkers will advise not to build with wood until it has dried at least a year per inch. that is probably […]
- Prize Trace Hook from Dirty Shed Creations
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- Epoxy River Desktop
My son was pretty adamant that he wanted his new desk to have an epoxy river on it. He has enjoyed the few times we have used epoxy to fill gaps in the past and he wanted to do more. We were going to be making the desktop out of Southern Yellow Pine so the […]
- Floating Top River Desk with Slab Sides – Intro
My son currently uses a desk that is a simple trestle style that belonged to his grandfather. I like the style of it, but it was from an era that knew nothing of laptops and mice and was a bit small for today’s deskly duties. He has simply outgrown the desk and was in need […]
- Easy clamping cauls
A few years ago I saw these bar clamps made by Sergio Acuña Padin on Youtube. His channel is full of clever, inexpensive tool builds. I liked these clamps because they were simple, effective and cheap. They are perfect for panel glue-ups. I have quite a few pipe clamps, so I didn’t really have a […]
- $4 Planing Stop
I have a bunch of dog holes on my bench and a bunch of bench dogs of various thickness. However, in practice when I am face planing a board I can almost guarantee that the bench dog will either be too thick, causing the plane to catch the top of the dog, or in the […]
- Driftwood and Hurricane Shelves
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- Black and Decker Electric Chainsaw
I recently needed a chainsaw to take care of some wood that had found its way to my driveway. I pulled out my 16 year old 16″ Poulan chainsaw that had not been used in over 10 years. I quickly discovered that all the fuel lines had deteriorated. So I bought replacement lines and filters […]
- Safety glasses – my favorite Radians passes the test
Safety in my workshop is important to me. Especially eye safety. One of my eyes is in pretty bad shape (not from the workshop) so it makes me all the more protective of my one good eye. Over the years I have gone through a lot of safety glasses. Many of them have failed due […]
- Gang Saw
I wanted to build a frame saw for resawing wood, especially large slabs. Previously my resawing logs technique has either been to use my bandsaw milling sled for smaller logs or my one-man rip saw for logs that won’t fit on my bandsaw. Then I thought about the old saw mills that used to use […]
- Snakeskin Ring
The other night, the cat was watching something intently that was just outside the pool cage. When we took a look, there was a corn snake laying on the rocks outside the pool cage. He had just started shedding his skin. We watched him wiggle out of the thing 1/4″ at a time. It was […]
- Rose Petal Ring
A few weeks back I made a ring from shavings off a mango branch, followed soon after by a ring made of cat hair. With Valentine’s Day approaching, my son wanted to try making a ring from rose petals for his mom. So we bought some roses and some super-glue and got to work. We […]
- Log Toggle Coat Rack
I have seen a bunch of these flip down toggle coat racks and have been intrigued by the designs. Modern and unobtrusive. Toggle a peg down if you need it, up if you don’t. I find them clever, but they are too modern looking for my taste. So I started imagining one that was based […]
- Mango Shavings Ring
I was planing a piece of mango wood for a coat rack I am making, when I got completely sidetracked by something. The shavings were so pretty, the urge struck me to try making a ring out of them. I have never made a ring before, and for the past 24 years I have only […]
- Live Edge Oak Coffee Table
I got a nice section of a Swamp Laurel Oak log from a neighbor that was cutting one down a little over a year or so ago. I wrote up a post about slabbing an oak log by hand. The entire time I was sawing the slabs out of that log, I knew I wanted […]
- Making a Tapered Slab
You can’t throw a stick without hitting someone that has posted a youtube video about making a router sled and using a router to plane a slab of wood flat. They have become very common. I have covered making a router planing sled and what router bits to use for planing. Usually router sleds are […]
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