Not having much else to blog about lately, I am electing to write about a little project that has really kept me fascinated recently. I find every piece of wood I work with to be interesting. Each one has something to be said for it--color, grain, burl, texture, whatever. One piece of wood has really captured my interest these past days, and it came from my own back yard!
A couple of years ago, I trimmed some trees in the back yard, including cleaning up some storm damage. We have a dozen or so scrub cedar trees along one border of our yard. These are of the type very commonly found growing wild in the countryside and in our ditches. I know my grandmother and step-grandfather used to cut small ones for use as their Christmas trees. They aren't always very eye-catching. Their needles can be kind of grey, and their shapes can be very random. When they are large enough, however, the wood can be quite interesting. Hence, the fascination for me.
While I was trimming the trees, I set aside a length of one of the cedar branches. It was about eight inches in diameter and about four feet long, so I thought that if it dried well without cracking too much, it might turn out to be a reasonable piece to turn on my lathe. Since then, I had pretty much forgotten about it. Then last week, I was doing a little straightening up in my garage and came upon it again. It seemed quite dry, so I took it down to my shop. I cut the log into two lengths, one of which you can see here. The tree has a bark that is quite stringy and which pulls off in strips.
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3 comments:
It's pretty Dad!
I'll have to show Henry in the morning...we just read that letter yesterday. (The real thing is better than your drawing.)
That is really neat, Bill! I really admire all your woodworking.
Very beautiful!
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