Used to do woodworking. When we moved I lost my detached garage shop. Kids also cut into my spare time.

I was considering trying to do some edge grain cutting boards or other small projects this spring to get back into the sawdust.

Finishing has always been my waterloo. I enjoy the cutting, building, sanding but I just dont enjoy the staining/finishing.

After that I plan on a cabinet from a tree from my yard topped by the 2007 ice storm. It was a black cherry & I had the bottom 12 feet cut into planks. It went into the attic for 3 years to season. Then I planed it all out.

Gorgeous wood.

Found a 22 buried in the tree. Planed off shiny & bright. I will put that in a prominent location for conversation.

The refurbishing has stretched my plumbing & electrical. Learned window glazing. Tile. Now starting on sanding the hard wood floors. Hope to have it done next month.[/QUOTE]
Do you have any pictures of the black cherry? You make a great point on the seasoning of the wood. I have a stack of oak boards going through that right now .


Friend does some really exotic cutting boards. I had no idea they could be so pretty. :eek:

On those first two cedar chests I wet sanded them with 400, 600 and finally 1000, then buffed them out with my polisher just like a car fender. :D

Do you have any pictures of the wood?

If you guys have any questions about sanding, stain, and any and all types of finish let me know. I have done it every way imaginable.

naked?:eek:

I was wondering if he's done it doggy style.

That pee stain finish is to die for

I imagine some brown streaking could give it a nice grainy look.

The corn touch up is a bit vintage

Trying to decide if I want to build a bar or buy a bar for my basement.

Many years ago, dad cut out part of the hay mow from the barn. the boards are still there. May make a good rustic bar.

Bad part is, because the trusses are gone, he did not shore up the roof and the barn is starting to bow. We are going to have to go in and put in metal beam around some of the posts inside the barn.

I know dad is saying "see, its your problem now"

This has win / win written all over it.

No. Just have to take my word for it.

Learned the hard way that a 30 in diameter 6-foot green tree trunk is damn heavy. Ruptured a disk wrestling it into the trailer to take the saw mill.

Is that purple heart wood? It looks great.

How you do get such a good finish?

Kickback.

My guess is that your workpiece was just a little too wide for it's length. When that happens, the backside of the cut can 'grab' at the tooth and the front of the workpiece doesn't have the leverage to hold it down anymore. So it walks up the blade and the blade, because it's spinning towards you, rockets it at you.

The big BIG problem with kickback is your right hand and its tendency to follow the workpiece. When a piece kicks like that (as opposed to a bind that's easy to deal with), it goes up, left and then back...when your hand does that as well, it goes up, left and then into the ****ing blade. That's why you always use a push-stick; that way the piece runs off the push stick and your hand doesn't follow. A push block helps even more.

So, some easy fixes for it and the easiest is a simple splitter. Microjig makes universal ones that go on older saws and work great. Newer saws have what are called riving knives that do the same thing. Kickback paws also exist but I hate them; they grab when you don't want them to.

But you're right, man. Kickback is terrifying. I was building some drawer bottoms with 1/2 ply. Since it was completely square, it was a kickback waiting to happen (like I said, wide and short is a recipe for disaster). I got through about 6 and at about 1 AM one of those things fired back at me. I tried to save it with my left hand around the back of the blade (because I saw it hop first) and all it did was fire into the top of my left hand and sheer some skin off before hitting me in the hip. Took me about 10 minutes to get my heart rate back under control but by God, I was finishing those ****ing drawers....

So a couple of my shot drawers may or may not have blood on the underside of the bottoms.

My saw is a deathtrap. No board buddies, no splitter, no nothing. My buddy is a no-shit craftsman and has built some amazing stuff and he's terrified to work with it. But it's got a great blade and it's a 3 HP, 220 saw so it cuts like butter. With my Vega Pro fence, that saw is a miracle worker and I just don't want to mess with that. I have some of those micro jig splitters, I just haven't gotten around to installing them yet. It's probably gonna be a lot harder to do once I lose a couple of fingers but I suspect that will be the catalyst.

The right safety devices and a willingness to use them makes a huge difference. I have the former....just not the latter.

Looks great; nice use of that ice cream wood.

My buddy's dad has probably set 1,000 board ft of that stuff on fire because he doesn't like the look but it's great for rustic projects and things like those chests (please don't get me started on the amount of walnut 'scrap' he's burned up....ugh)

Here's a wood that I don't think anyone would have ever thought to use that we stumbled into - osage orange; common hedge. You'd need a hell of a bandsaw to re-saw anything of significant heft, but if you're able to get any 2 inch thick stock, a good table saw can do the work.

It's damn near bright yellow when you cut it but after it ages for several months to a year, it takes on this honey amber color that's really quite attractive. Better still is that it's DENSE. It's the only thing I've ever worked with that approaches ipe and it's a shitload cheaper. Makes for a tight, pretty grain pattern and fantastic durability for outdoor furniture.