Vectric Customer

This is a project I like to call "Winter Tree" I designed the tree with Aspire from a picture of a single branch. I then copied, mirrored, stretched, rotated and node edited myself into a whole tree. I used one of the bark textures over the top to give it that natural texture. This is cut into some live edge Cherry that I sealed only with cut clear Shellac. I have some spalted cherry boards that I am makng a box out of and this piece will be the top.

Nice job, can't wait to see the finished project.
Thanks for sharing.

Nice Bill!
Kinda reminds me of the 2 lightning struck trees in my backyard that are now permanently bare as the beaver dam flooded their roots finally 2 years ago.
To do that from scratch, from 1 branch is Great
+1 on the pics on the finished box.
scott

Nice I especially like the texture on the trunk. Looking forward to seeing the finished project as well.
Thanks for sharing.

April 2017? bet you thought you'd never see this again.

I'm here to tell you that I finished the box and I'm very happy with it. I learned a lot from it, not so much Aspire (although it has a good amount of that content) but other woodworking elements. See, the box that I wanted to build was going to have a more rustic feel, because of the live edge cherry, and the hand planed lid, and the spalted maple. I had cut up a section of a log once to use in a project, but just once before. So, this spalted maple was a new experience for me. I saw it on the firewood pile and recognized and brought it down to my basement. After I let it sit there for a few weeks, I decided to put the 3/4" resaw blade in my bandsaw and give it a whirl. The cuts came out well, but the wood was still wet that I could feel with my hand. I separated the 7 small boards, 4 of them between 3/8 and 1/2 inch thick and 3 of them a little more than a 1/4' thick and let them dry a bit. After a few weeks, they felt a lot drier, but I saw a little cracking on the edges and I was worried about the spalting continuing. So I picked out the faces I wanted to show on the outside, hand planed them smooth and then put 2 coats of clear shellac on them thinking that if I cut off the oxygen the spalting action might stop.

The boards sat and sat while I worked on other things, many other things. Finally I moved these and other like projects of partial completion and good intention to a cleared off table in my shop. Some time shortly thereafter I gave my retirement notice as an Engineer and began working 3 days per week for the last 6 months of 2018 and suddenly finding more time to clear that table. But I didn't want to do what I had done before, which was to CNC cut box joints or dovetail joints. I wanted to teach myself how to hand cut dovetail joints, I wanted that look for this box. So I watched a lot of videos, challenged my mind to remember the one time that I cut one in 7th grade shop class, bought some nifty saws and marking gauges, found a whole bunch of beautiful calipers that were my Great Grandfathers, and finally started to cut dovetail joints. This "Winter Tree" box is the fourth project that I have done, all in the last 6 months, with hand cut dovetails.

If there is no pictures, it didn't happen. So here we go:
So that is the front view of the previously made top with a fresh attempt at a French polish for both the top and the spalted maple. Are the dovetails perfect? No, but I am happy they give the look I wanted.

But Bill, what are those little bits of dark wood at the back, is that walnut, what are those? They are Hinges, made out of wood, yes, walnut with a steel pin hack sawed from a rod to hold them together. This is the third set of wooden hinges I ever made and they are always a lot of fun. I'm never quite sure how they will work, and then they just do. But I recently thought long and hard on what they should be. And for the geometry I wanted them to be triangular and was going to make some sort of shapely triangle to please the eye, but think rustic, and tree, and man if that spalting didn't remind me of something Native American, ah! Arrowheads!

So still three pics and out, so I'll bore you a little more if you don't mind.

That cherry top took a little twist over two years, or maybe it was always and I didn't notice or remember but I had to hand plane that to get it reasonably flat for a box top.

I also had glued those (3) 1/4"+ thick planks together and handplane those nice and flat so the bottom panel could be glued to the bottom. And yes, If you are asking, I used my Aspire designed block plane to hand round over those small edges on the bottom. The little things: low noise, no dust, using your hands. Oh and the way that spalting flows through the face and into a dovetail, nature on display.

And so that's it, a two year journey to make a box, lol. But you know what, I only have one more project on that table. Thanks for reading!

Came out very nicely. Thanks for telling us the story behind it.

WOW -- COOL

Love the tree - nice job indeed

LOVE the hinges - unique - awesome

Outstanding workmanship, Bill! Thank you for sharing the details and the photos - definitely worth the wait!

Aaah Bill,
Just another one of a kind model in live edge, as a top for flitch cut/fungus ridden/hand dovetailed/made from a 50cent piece of firewood Box....

Cherry has picked up some Nice color! Seeing the box made out of what you can Tell is One piece of the same wood, Always makes a piece special to me:)
NICE work all round...and GREAT to see someone else that works at my same pace!!
I better start work on some of MY 2017 Birdseye firewood!

Reminds me of something my Grandfather would have made!!

Well done Bill!!
scott

That was a great choice on the dovetails. As you said, "Nature on display."

Thanks to all for reading my post and appreciating my work.

50¢ piece of firewood? I think I paid $180 for that cord, so that's probably close.

Nice work

Creation in Wood wrote:Nice work

Thanks