A few more things with lumber we've milled

MSSawmill · February 14, 2018, 10:42:31 PM

It seems like life has taken us a different direction the last couple of years, and I don't spend as much time at the mill as I used to. And for those same reasons, I'm not spending as much time out here on the forum. We've been in the house our home-built sawmill helped to build for about 8 months now, and most things are done. I've still got a few cabinet doors to hang, and we haven't even started on some of the cabinet projects we want to get to, but God is good.

Here are a couple of things we've done with some of the lumber we've milled. There are a couple of other pictures I want to take, but my wife needs to clean house and threatened my life if I posted pictures of the kitchen right now.

This first pic is the ceiling in my living room. It's all pine that we cut off of dad's place, milled, dried, ripped, planed, cut the tongue and groove, and then hung. It's been sealed with a couple of coats of helmsman spar urethane. It was a lot of work, but we love it! My back porch has the same treatment.

This is a picture of the vanity in our master bath. The bodies were built out of ¾ oak plywood, but the trim is all solid oak we milled. The rails and stiles on the doors are also solid oak we milled. Again, dad and I took it from tree to what you see here. And honestly, my wife helped out quite a lot, too...

This one was one of my little pet projects. And the picture was taken before we moved in, obviously. That's the bar top in our kitchen looking into the living room. The main part is all various oaks in ½" and ¾" strips laminated together, and the then the border is a ¾" strip of cedar, a ¾" strip of Chinese tallow, (popcorn tree), and a 1.5" strip of oak. I'm definitely biased, but I love this countertop! Again, it was a lot of work, but I'm proud of it every time I look at it. It is sealed with Waterlox, which has held up extremely well, too. And I didn't get a pic, but we even made the metal braces underneath the countertop in the forge.

These last 2 pics are some of my first attempts at knife-making. 2 were cut and ground from an older arm saw blade, and the smallest one was actually a reciprocating saw blade. Yeah, I know I need a lot more practice, but it's another fun hobby.
The first 2 are little whittling knives. The top one has maple scales, and the bottom one has multiple woods laminated together. (Technically, these are all pieces I got from another member on this forum, but they still count, right?)

This bottom one is now a kitchen knife at my parents' house. Mama has labeled it "scary sharp". The handle scales are bois d'arc, (osage orange).

Thanks a lot for all of the help out here, guys! I asked a million stupid questions, but there was always a friendly answer. I definitely learned a lot more than I thought I would ever need to know, and there's still a lot more to learn.

Charles