Old guy found a litte cherry log: Pics tomorrow

[Adkpk]

I cut trees in the winter on my woodlot. After two years the bark comes off pretty easily (depending on the tree of course). I use an ice scrapper for now. It works really well, better than the axe I used to use. It is one of the jobs I really enjoy. But I was curious to see if anyone had any experience with a spud. I am going to start a new thread on this. So come on over and ckeck it out.

 

[oldsaw]

Hey Mark... the way I got the wife on board with me spending so much time milling wood was eventually make her something from it in the shop, and tell her how much the wood would have cost if I had to go buy it.

Of course you leave out the part about how much you paid for the chainsaw, the mill, the 100 ft of ripping chain, couple hundred bucks worth of hardhat, chaps, good ear and eye protection etc etc :hmm3grin2orange:

She has softened her position. My next project for her will be a computer desk. Long term, a new bedroom set. We are at an impasse on furniture, but I'm winning. I refuse to spend money on particle board, even if the veneer is pretty.

This is the first time I've gone out and haven't gotten a bunch of crap from her about how much time I took. Of course, I was out with my son's assistant principal, who is married to one of her friends. It was nice for my milling time to be relaxing all day long.

BTW, I did tell her that pile was worth $500 at retail.

Mark

 

[woodshop]

BTW, I did tell her that pile was worth $500 at retail.
Mark

NOW we're talkin'... of course that one can backfire. After I came home with one days haul of quartersawn oak worth "a good thousand bucks retail" I told her, she came right back with a scheme to sell the wood I work so hard at milling. So... sometime ya can't win.

 

[bookerdog]

yes

NOW we're talkin'... of course that one can backfire. After I came home with one days haul of quartersawn oak worth "a good thousand bucks retail" I told her, she came right back with a scheme to sell the wood I work so hard at milling. So... sometime ya can't win.

Isn't that the truth. You tell them how much its worth and then the thinking starts. If we sell that wood I can get a new?

 

[MikeInParadise]

I am jealous!

Nice stack of cherry. I just love building cherry furniture!

Unfortunately where I live now there is no local cherry and to buy it is is about $9 bd/ft for so-so stuff.

I doubt that I will ever get to build any cherry furniture again unless you would like to ship that up to me!

I built these two cherry desks for my kids using Norm Abraham's design which is great and you may want to consider for your wife. I put some detailed pictures in and you can get the plans from the new yankee workshop website. I just built it by watching the TV program.

 

[oldsaw]

Wow!! Nice work.

Norm does come up with them every now and then doesn't he.

Mark

 

[woodshop]

BEAUTIFUL desks, great job, nice work. Those look like heirloom quality. I too love working with cherry. It has it's drawbacks, like how easily it burns on the tablesaw or router table. Very sharp blades/bits and no hesitation during the cut is a must. But beautiful wood. I like how it darkens a bit with age and develops that unique cherry patina over time. I found out the hard way never put strait boiled linseed oil on a cherry piece. Linseed oil darkens almost any wood over time itself. In less than 5 years of sitting in a sunny spot, that cherry turned VERY dark, to the point where some of the beautiful grain and color dissapeared.

 

[hautions11]

Cherry

I like Cherry in the shop as well. I have built several of Norm's shaker style library tables. 4' long 16" wide, tapered legs 2 drawers. I also built a dining room table to match. Oldsaw, I have the same argument. $2k for a table and when you opened the leaf area, particle board and a thin veneer. My table is now 12 years old. It has had school projects built on it, three kids worth of abuse and spilled milk, some scratches and dents, but since it is solid wood, a little sanding a couple of coats of polyurethane, good as new. It has darkened with age, but is now a beautiful rich cherry color. I'll post a picture tonight.

The same particle board argument ensued over an entertainment center. It was a nice design, 7' long 6' high, slightly curved across the entire front. Slightly bowed doors that slide in front of the TV area, or in front of the side shelves depending on watching TV or not. $1800, all particle board and the entire back was some sort of fiber board. That is going to be my winter project with the Ash I am milling right now. My wife knows I do not have half of that $1800 in all my saws and milling stuff. On top of that the tree service wanted $1500 to knock my ash down, but my son and I did it using the same saws. 2 cords of firewood $200ish. Somewhere in this mix we are going to be up about $2600....... I need to buy more SAW's

 

[LostInTheWoods]

Looks really nice. Gives me hope. I'm the newbie with the thread "Newbie with two big cherry trees". My status right now is I am getting the five big logs moved to the side by the 'dozer operator today. From there the plan is to have the local milling guy to pick them up Saturday morning and to mill from there. I owe everyone some updated pics of the logs and will send them in the next few days on my thread. Cheers!

 

[Adkpk]

Nice desks, Mike!

 

[aquan8tor]

Very nice work! I like the design, as well. I like NORM! Hopefully I'll have something like this to show off next year sometime when I've got wood that's dry enough to use!

 

[hautions11]

Cherry

OK Oldsaw, here is some more future motivation. Dining room set. The Norm table is against the wall with the decanters on it. I built the small table first to prove to myself I could actually do it. I'm with you Mike. I built the library table from a taped episode of Norm's show. The dining room table was really only the second thing I ever built in the shop.

My normal philosophy, just like milling, jump in and try it, you will learn a lot!

 

[Adkpk]

Wow! Very impressive, Hautions! Good show.

 

[woodshop]

BEAUTIFUL solid cherry table hautions... again I say, there is an awful lot of talent on this forum. I'm curious where you got the cherry wood for that dining table when you did it, and what you payed for it. I agree with that philosophy of kinda diving in big time as with that dining table once you have gotten your feet wet. Woodworking is not rocket science, no magic as some of the folks at my shows seem to think. Sure you have to have some mechanical skills, but those often come from practice and playing in the shop, making mistakes. OK, it doesn't hurt to have the right tools for the job either, but you can do a lot with a little. Just often takes more time. Most of my woodworking in the last 4 years has been semi-mass producing items for shows. Thus I spend a lot of time figuring out ways to improve jigs and ways to make x number of widgets faster yet still keep or even improve the quality of the finished item as I am doing that. I actually love THAT challenge more than making the product once I have a process dialed in.

 

[MikeInParadise]

I love the cherry table Hautions, Nice work!...

I agree with that philosophy of kinda diving in big time as with that dining table once you have gotten your feet wet. Woodworking is not rocket science, no magic as some of the folks at my shows seem to think. Sure you have to have some mechanical skills, but those often come from practice and playing in the shop, making mistakes. OK, it doesn't hurt to have the right tools for the job either, but you can do a lot with a little. Just often takes more time.

I agree that far too many people figure that wood working is way more difficult than it really is. While having all the equipment makes it easier there are just so many different ways to do the same thing with different tools.

I learn far more from my mistakes of which I make on every single project that I do.

Such has fixing this table after the bearing came off the router bit cause I never checked it for tightness.

So good bye ogee profile and hello cove profile.

If you are not making mistakes than you just aren't learning!

 

[woodshop]

Such has fixing this table after the bearing came off the router bit cause I never checked it for tightness.

Well for what it's worth, I think I like the cove profile better than roman ogee. Nice job turning a mistake into an improvement... I love when I blunder into a situation like that, and come out smelling like roses. Doesn't ALWAYS turn out that way.opcorn:

 

[Adkpk]

Thus I spend a lot of time figuring out ways to improve jigs and ways to make x number of widgets faster yet still keep or even improve the quality of the finished item as I am doing that.

Ok woodshop we've seen your jigs and we were impressed so now we all have to see a widget.

 

[woodshop]

Ok woodshop we've seen your jigs and we were impressed so now we all have to see a widget.

Walnut

Nutcracker

Walnut meets nutcracker

soft maple, hard maple, walnut, oak and cherry

 

[oldsaw]

Okay, I've got a bunch to answer here.

Knockout table, Hautions, I like that.

Mistakes? An old time carpenter explained mistakes to me once. He said that old carpenters make almost as many mistakes as young ones, they just know how to hide them, or work around them better. Over the years, I've come to see how true that is.

Mike, I had a router that the motor had come loose on the inside of the case and wandered up and down about an 1/8 of an inch. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Had to make a bit of a profile "change" as well. Worked out okay, my Mother-in-law never spotted it.

Cool nutcracker, woodshop. I see you have developed a system to go along with the multitude of jigs.

Mark

 

[Adkpk]

Not sure what I am more impressed with your presentation of the widget or the widget. So, anyway that's a widget, neat. What's one of them widget's goes for? Maybe take a few of them theres widgets off of you. PM me. I'll get back to you next weekend about it for I am about to disembark for the hills. Give me a price for the cheese cutting board and any othe items that you are widgeting over there, please. Christmas is coming up and I love to give crafts as gifts. Yours truly, Bob