I’m yet to cut a board in my shop with the newly installed dust collector; don’t be misled. I’m on vacation from the shop. Well, sort of.
These boards were constructed & sanded in 2015, but they were oiled & waxed in 2016.
Six of these boards were commissioned pieces which will be shipped to their new homes in the next few days. The rest will have to wait to find their new home!
Random thoughts:
- I’ve lost my source for Honey Locust, so you won’t be seeing much of that wood in my new creations. I hope to find another source; I really like Honey Locust’s orange tint.
- This Goncalo Alves will darken with age, and I really love that wood. I should use it more, but I stopped because I couldn’t find an affordable source … but that species, I have got a better source now. The cutting boards I made for the 2 Mrs M’s are both primarily Goncalo. Hmmmm.
- These boards were made in winter … is that why they’re all dark?
- Bloodwood is my new favorite. Fantastic, colorful figure in this wood, and it pairs very nicely the other woods here with a distinctly reddish color: Purpleheart and Jarrah. Cherry and Jatoba are very complementary as well.
One other note about the Woodshop: at the end of 2014, I only had 19 boards in inventory. With these boards (minus the commissioned pieces), my inventory is now 108 boards! I’m still sold out of a few items (no clipboards, no surfboards, and no pigs!), but I’ve got a pretty broad inventory to start the new year … and several weeks to prepare for our first event in February.
Meanwhile, here are the first boards of the new year!
You DO remember there’s a lot of honey locust in this area? shipping probably would be high but i’d bet Bill Medsker could give you a source or 2 if you’d be interested?
Local is a wonderful thing. My understanding is that locusts aren’t generally commercially available because the trees aren’t easy to harvest & get a reasonable yield. Don’t ask me, I’m not a sawyer … but a local sawyer would be a great way to go, you’re right. Hmmmm.
Per what I’ve heard from Bill, they tend to crack easily when dried – don’t know how that’s handled – but I’m sure you remember the 8″ thorns they have – hence the “aren’t easy to harvest” – talk to Bill sometime, he’s done some woodworking w/ locust – it’s beautiful indeed – but he could tell you a LOT more than I can – since you know what I know at this point!!! I’ll email you his addy – don’t really think I should post it here!
Thanks much for the research. And yes, I remember those thorns well!