Some of you may recall my original, laughable attempt, and the follow up…
Well, folks, I finally completed it. Here is the final version (well, still gluing a few layers, but this is it assembled, anyway):
8th Wedding Anniversary gift, so I made it in an octagon shape, 8 inches wide, and with 8 layers. And painted in Bronze highlights, since that is the traditional 8th Anniversary gift. I wanted to inlay real bronze, but that was just waaaaay too much work, lol. And it uses the tree’s Heartwood…awwww…
Hope she likes it…
Now, you might be wondering why I entitled this “Or, A Labor of Love”…
Well, here are the details behind the build…
I didn’t want to use just any wood, so I chose a plank from a local tree that had been knocked down in a storm, where I had salvaged the wood myself with a chainsaw, hauled it home, and sliced into planks.
From pieces like this, I chose a plank…probably a diff one than this, but you get the idea…
Was all too wet when I had re-sawed it, so they all had warped…onto the planer it went!
:
After one side:
After the second side, nice and flat:
Smooooth as glass…
Resawing into thinner planks;
Uugggh, wish I had known how hard heartwood is to cut through! Had to plane them even thinner later…and then glue two layers together.
Btw, this is what a cross section side view of score marks looks like:
Ha, Bronze!!! DON’T YOU BELIEVE IT!!! The most silver bronze paint I’ve ever seen!! Had to repaint all with a different can later…
Switched paints; this is much better!
Reverse imaged the engraving onto acrylic…ready to paint. Btw, I had messed up the first time, and transposed 8th & Anniversary! Lol, not the first one to do it, and won’t be the last, either…
Finally ready to glue: Have to tightly and perfectly clamp each set; thin wood warps! And the glue is very slippery
Final Product:
Btw, I could have made it in this style, but I like the one I chose better; how about you guys?
