These honey dippers were made from cherry wood that I milled about ten years ago. I milled slabs 2-3 inches thick and I was going to make tables and benches from it, but I have not done so yet. I resawed one of the small pieces into 1/4" planks and that is what the honey dippers were made from . Before I cut, the surface was give one coat of Tried and True finish which is a gel made from partially polymerized linsee oil (with out driers) and beeswax. It really brought out the color of the cherry wood. The celtic knots on the handle end also have cut throughs, but they don’t show well in the photo. I also made some from maple that I milled, but the cherry looks much better.
My tablesaw struggled to get through a 3" plank, so I will probably get a 18" bandsaw this spring so that I have >12" resaw capacity. I can get more value from the cherry that I have from 1/8" and 1/4" boards and the glowforge, than from making large furniture and trying to sell it.
I did not want to get the finish into the voids. You apply only a very thin film of the gel and then after an hour wipe any remaining off. Apparently, it will not harden fully in bulk and will leave a sticky residue. I am trying to come up with a methods to heat them in melted beeswax and wipe off excess.
The Tried and True finish is rather expensive, but I have been pleased with the results to far.
Thanks. I am rather partial to Celtic knots. Not sure if that is because I am a Kilt wearing Scot or the mathematical beauty of the design. I took a close up of the handle. If I could easily score the reverse, side it would make for a very nice presentation.
Thanks. I am afraid that my tolerances are too tight for that methods. I have squeezed three of the designs together so that they will fit on my 1.85" wide piece of wood. The wood that remains between the Celtic knot design and the shaft of the neighboring dipper after cutting is only 0.015" thick at the thinnest point. Kind of surprising that you can cut that close without charring the wood. Cherry is one of my favorite woods to work with. I made an observation hive out of cherry and mahogany last year for demonstrations. It looks so much better than pine. With the hardness and tight grain structure of cherry, you can almost get metal machining perfection.
Is there anyway to have the scoring performed before the cutting? The movement of the piece when it is cut free causes the scoring to be off.
Maybe I could use the 12x20 trick with a piece of plywood and cut outlines of the dipper and then place the hardwood version with the reverse side up and score the knot. I am trying to come up with a work flow to make more of these more easily.
Yes indeed. You can drag the icon in the thumbnail column on the left and drop it in front of the other icon. They process from the top down. So just drag the score higher than the cut in the column.
