Some of my recemt projects

[tgalbraith]

 This is my first post on the Woodworking site, but have been active on Sawmills for a few years. This first photo is of a wooden chain I made for my daughter.



The next is a "Prayer Chain" I carved for my church, in memory of my wife.
 


The next is a rustic bench I salvaged out of my slab pile and gave to my new neighbor's, that are renovating the old school house that I attended. The original Reed's Hill Elementary was log building and my Dad moved it 1/3 mile, using log rollers and a hand winch to our farm and used it as a barn.



I hope you enjoy these as I did creating them.

[Peter Drouin]

Very nice carvings.
Is that a 2x4 you used to start with on the bigger chain?

[Magicman]

Very nice and superb craftsmanship.  Since the first chain already has my name carved into it I can send you my mailing address.   ;D

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

You have a talent Sir and using it well. 

[ellmoe]

Very nice and superb craftsmanship.  Since the first chain already has my name carved into it I can send you my mailing address.   ;D

I automatically looked for "Magic" carved on the chain! Who the heck is Lynn?  :D

[tgalbraith]

Very nice carvings.
Is that a 2x4 you used to start with on the bigger chain?

Peter-  No, it measured 5"x5". That was the dimensions after I squared up the top log from a 112 year old white cedar that blew down over one of my walking trails in my swamp.  Thank you all for the kind words.  

[teakwood]

Wow a wooden chain!! impressive

I'm overwhelmed, how do you make a wood chain??   

[tgalbraith]

Wow a wooden chain!! impressive

I'm overwhelmed, how do you make a wood chain??  

The way I do it is,  find a fairly straight trained piece of wood with few or no knots the size you want the chain to be. Then Mark each side in three equal parts. Set up a table saw with a rip-fence the same as the distance between those lines. Set the blade height to that same dimension .  Run the board thru until all four corners of your square piece are removed. You end up with a X shaped piece. Draw out a template of a "chain link" with a width equal to the cross section of your workpiece. Now cut it out and then cut it the long way the same as the depth of the cuts you made in the wood.  Now, with that pattern, you can pay out your chain. Make sure you make the end of link #1 almost touch the end of link #3. That is the trick to allow enough room to get your knife in to carve it. It sounds compllcated, but with a little patience it works out.  You will find that the finished chain will be longer than the work piece was. The chain in the first pic is 6 feet long and came from a 5 foot workpiece. Good luck if you try one. 

[teakwood]

Thanks for that explanation, very informative. I don't think that i would have the patience 

[Howdy]

I truly enjoy wooden chains.  

I have started to carve several of them.  

Whenever I get a new pocket knife, the first thing I do is find a good piece of chain wood and start whittling away. 

The second thing I do is go to the urgent care and get stitched up. Then I put the new knife (with the blood still on the blade) away until I heal.  

Sometimes I try again, and repeat the process gaining another scar and sometimes I just admire the particular carved wood.  Either way, eventually my grandson's get another knife!