On one of our many boating trips to a favorite nearby beach we stumbled upon an Australian Pine rolling in the surf. As it was a hazard to navigation, I pulled it out of the surf and dragged it up on the beach. It was pretty large, roughly 25 feet long. This was back in April 2019. Australian Pine (also known as She Oak) look like a pine tree and grows along the shores of the intercoastal waterways in Florida. They are considered an invasive species. They have long needles and are incredibly hard (2,920N on the Janka scale). It is the hardest wood I have ever worked.
Normally when I am at parks, I treat the wood as off limits, but in this case it was [A] from an invasive species and [B] was only in the park because I dragged it ashore. So I felt ok about dragging it home. The problem???? I could barely move it. I needed a saw. Next weekend we came back with a saw. My son cut off an end and declared it his. I cut off a 6 foot section and declared it mine. The dockhand, when we returned must have thought we were a little goofy unloading wood from the boat.
Anyway… a month later my son wanted to make his mom a coat rack with the wood for her birthday. So here is the story of the build from May of 2019.
We sketched out what a live-edge mirror frame would look like and went from there. I used a wire brush on the outside to remove what I thought was all the sand. Then I used my bandsaw to cut the wood into 4 small slabs. Wow was I wrong. It was loaded with sand. The teeth on the bandsaw were sparking as I was making the cuts and by the time we were done, the teeth on the sawblade were almost gone. Free wood just became very costly as I needed a new bandsaw blade.
No plane was going to touch this wood as the sand would have ruined my blades. So I decided to fight sand with sand. I used my Makita belt sander to flatten the slabs. The bench dogs keep the belt sander from ejecting them off the end of the sawbench.
Eventually they were in pretty good shape but they had some voids and punky sections that needed some help that only epoxy could give.
We used Amazing Clear Cast with some Pearl Ex emerald pigment to fill in the voids.
One of the sections was split pretty bad, so I used a clamp to hold it together while the epoxy cured.
More sanding cleaned up the over-pour.
This design called for three blacksmithed coat hooks, so we fired up the forge. Unfortunately I have no photos of the blacksmithing. Striking while the iron is hot, does not lend itself to taking photos. Also trying to hold the camera while also holding the iron tongs while my son swings the hammer is a recipe for someone to get hurt.
The wood was joined together with half-lap joints. I had a straight cutting bit for my router that was in pretty bad shape, so I used that to cut the half-laps and rout out the recess for the mirror. This worked pretty well, but again the sand rendered the bit useless by the time I was done.
To attach the three hooks we used clenched nails because they were strong, and fit the style of the blacksmithed hooks pretty well. Here is my son drilling the holes for the clenched nails. The hooks are in the lower left corner of the photo, and the cheap Walmart mirror that would provide the glass is in the background over his right shoulder.
In most pine, the nails would have clenched just fine. This pine is so hard, I had to use a small gouge to remove some wood to create a space for the nail to bend into.
Here you can see the routed recess for the mirror glass, as well as the key hole style brass used to hang the mirror securely on the wall.
For a finish we just used some Zinsser shellac spray to make it a quick finish as we were trying to get it done in time for being a birthday gift.
I like the pinkish hue of the Australian Pine as it looks a bit like red cedar but is so much more dense.
The iron hooks definitely look hand made. … mainly because we are not very consistent in our blacksmithing yet…. still working on improving our skills.
I like the character of the wood, the live edges, the color variations and the epoxy.
In hindsight I should have made the dimensions a wee bit smaller as the mirror is a tight fit into this spot.
The mirror is a great place to hand a purse or jacket, and is also a great reminder of a fun day on the beach.
Previously
- Cypress Stump End Tables
I wrote a while back about the Cypress Stump Console I made from one of the two Cypress trees I had removed in my back yard. The second stump… the butt really, was a bit shorter. I thought it would make a good coffee table but we don’t need any more of those. However we […]
- Sawdust in the Wind
My Dad passed away a week ago. I credit him with teaching me about creative work, a bit of woodworking and especially hand tool woodworking. In preparing for his memorial service I came across a few photos that answered some of the mystery for me about this hobby that has become a bit of an […]
- Heart Bar Stool
I had this idea kicking around in my head for a barstool made from a log with a built in footrest. My original thought was for a square seat, but used on a diagonal like a diamond. Then I was looking for ways to reduce the weight and realized that the back corner of the […]
- Cypress Stump Console Table
Back in May 2019 we had two large Bald Cypress trees removed from our back yard. Steve’s Tree Service did a great job and they obliged me in my request to have the trunks cut as close to the ground as possible so that I could have some nicely flared stumps for creative woodworking. This […]
- Cypress Serving Tray
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 […]
- 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
I started watching the YouTube channel Dirty Shed Creations when they began their wood log throne series about 6 months ago and I have not missed a release yet. I like Dirty Shed creations both for its enjoyable cast of characters (Uncle Al, Camera Boy, and Tammy) and the projects they come up with match […]
- 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
I call this “The shelves that blew in.” It is made from a driftwood root and some wood that Hurricane Maria blew down in my neighborhood in 2017. Back in April we were walking on a beach near Stump Pass in Florida. My son was looking for a stick to play with and grabbed what […]
- 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 […]