Sapwood and knots (project and story)

[Daren]

There are some pictures of a little project below, but first you get a story from me (unless you just skip this part and look at the pictures  :D) When I first got my mill I viewed things quite differently than I do now. I was weird. I was always taking logs that were way too big for my little mill "You gotta 60" oak ?, sure bring it on over" : for example. I thought if I was not sawing boards 20" what was the point of even havin' a mill? Anything under 10" was just a disappointment to me. I took a grinder to my mill so I could get an extra inch on my slabs even (24" was not enough  :-\) .

I only sawed hardwoods for myself. First thing I would do was figure out my best face, get rid of that "ugly sapwood" and start grade sawing hoping for the widest knotfree lumber. I would pull a board 16" wide and 10' long and if it had a single knot in it 3/4 the way down I would be bummed, I would focus on the "defect". Back then sapwood was a big defect in my opinion and had to go.

My whole mindset has changed. I am just a hack woodworker, but I enjoy it. The more experience I get the more I could kick myself in the pants for some of the "defective" wood I have hauled off over the years :'(. Matter of fact the last 3 projects I have posted here has been old busted up stuff that a few years ago I would have burned.

So that was my story, I learn as I go along milling and woodworking. Here is the project. A little walnut stool with as much sapwood as I could possibly find and a big fat knot for decoration  ;D. I used sap splines in the heartwood and vise verse.

[Tom]

Neat stool.

I have always wondered who/what determined the beauty of anything.  For something to be pretty, someone has to say it is.  It only takes one person to get the ball rolling and make others think.   If you have an artistic eye, don't waste it on other's determination of what is pretty.

Knots, endgrain and cracks can be quite the challenge, but they can also provide eye-catching focus points that would otherwise be absent if the medium were flawless.

White makes a pretty wall.  An all white wall is boring and yearns for a photograph to be hung upon it.

If there is one thing I admire, it's the artistry over the medium.  Though, artistry in a proper medium is hard to beat. 

I sure would like to have a batch of Grandmomma's rejected batch of sugar cookies along about now.  :D

[Ianab]

I hear what you are saying.

Of course I love cutting those wide clear boards, but when it comes to working with them, they are pretty boring. May as well be cutting the parts out of a piece of mfd or plywood sometimes. Also it allways seems a shame to me to cut up a big perfect board into little furniture components, so I tend to save them for bigger profects anyway.

All the interesting stuff is in the rougher boards. The curly grain, the live edges, bits of sapwood and interesting knots.

Your little stool would have been rather boring if it was made from a 'perfect' board. I like it much more the way you have done it with the character 'junk' boards  ;)

Ian

[thecfarm]

Another fine looking project.I like the almost purple color.

[Daren]

I like the almost purple color.

That was a freak tree, only 20 years old ? According to the guy's who's yard it was in, he cut it down to build a garage, 24" at the base and 40'+ tall. "Darn thing shot up like a weed" Thus all the sap and wide/light grain heart. I really tried to keep the sap white, aggressively air dried then into the kiln. But most of it cupped really bad being such an oddity (shoulda sawn it thicker  :() . Like in my story I went from looking for the "perfect" board to working towards  trying to find and use the unusual and make something different.

[asy]

Daren...

I believe that's called maturity... 

Even though I think I'm older than you  :-\ I'm still searching for it. I guess, in some way, all of us are (except maybe Tom and DanG...  :D ).

That's an exceptionally beautiful piece. I'd be proud to have it in my home. But then I love Dark wood, and I especially love it with interesting grain or figure.

Very nicely done.

asy :D

[Daren]

I believe that's called maturity...   I'm still searching for it.

Here's to hoping you never find it asy 

[Dave Shepard]

As always, cool project Daren! 8) I haven't quite figured out the splines yet though. ;D


Dave

[metalspinner]

That little touch alternating the  heart/sap splines really makes that stool!  Very cool. 8)

[TexasTimbers]

Hey FDH, Gilman, beenthere, crtreedude ( I am down to 174 lbs btw ;) )Woodhick, i think that's everyone.

The bad news is I never did find the jig I was telling y'all about back in November of '05 in one of Harold's post. The good news is I found some other ones though. Daren used one to make his stool and several other great looking projects. 

I traded some PM's with some of you about using it around the time of that thread in '05, and then y'all forwarding it on to the next guy. That was behind the scenes, and then i discovered it, my Leigh, and 24" hand plane had grown legs. Well I found the plane but the jigs are AWOL permanent. Now that I have a couple more available I can keep my promise. I want to say Gilman for sure, didn't I tell you I would send it to you to use when i found it?

Well, if you are one I told could use it, then it's first come first served and then you gotta send it on to the next guy after a project or two. I know FDH ain't gettin it first. Someone else has got to send it to him.  :D

Daren already gave me the green light to make this post.

I'm slow, but I eventually get around to things. Ask Paul if I am slow or not.  :

[Fla._Deadheader]

Congrats on the weight loss  8) 8)  Now, refresh  my memory on what Jig yer talkin about  : : : : : : Nov. 2005 ???  Was that in the last century  : ??? : ;D

[TexasTimbers]

Aww Harold yer memory is worse than mine. Makes me feel good about myself. The dovetail spline jig - posted some pictures of the joints I made with it somewhere. You had made a post in the wanted section about a dovetail jig. It started a discussion and i mentioned my favorite jig and it got some of yuz interest up.

I never could find the jig. Now I have a few of them I figured I'd try and make good on my earlier intentions. Capiche?

[Fla._Deadheader]

Si Senor.  It's getting harder and harder to remember stuff.  : : :

[Coon]

FDH, you gotta always remember "It's mind over matter. If you've got no mind it don't really matter."   :D