Special Gift from Mesquite

A friend asked me about crosses, where she could get one as a gift to honor five years of service for a woman leading a church group.  Naturally, I told her I make them gratis and asked her when she needed it.  It was a short lead time, but in a week I made this beautiful 8 1/2" tall cross from mesquite.  Mesquite is a soft pink color, but when stained with Minwax Puritan Pine, it turns a deep rich color.  Two coats of polyurethane make it shine. This is one of the favorites I've made, number 2719.

the finished cross

Here's a quick look at the process: cutting a strip from a slab then joining, ripping with my Grr-Rippers then cutting the dadoes using a Dado Stop jig, both from MicroJig.  I then glue and assemble, sand both faces smooth, carve the corners and sand the edges.  Last, I finish with stain and apply two coats of polyurethane, lightly sanding with fine sandpaper between coats.  Finally, I rub down the finished cross with a piece of burlap.

Giving the cross is the best part.

the slab - wild grain

joining the cut strip

ripping to width - using Grr-Rippers

setting dado width - using Dado Stop jig

cutting dado on vertical piece

ready to glue

glued and assembled

stained

(When making one or a few crosses, I use the Dado Stop.  When making a batch of smaller crosses, I use a dado blade.  See my post of October 30, Hickory - a batch of 75.)

p. 64

Hickory - a batch of 75

I'm in the process of making a batch of 75 crosses 2 13/16" high of 3/8" thick hickory that I brought home from Kentucky in the spring.  It was rough sawn 5/4" boards which I planed and resawed. Hickory is a hard wood with "modest" grain.  These will be nice crosses to share.

the process

after ripping dadoed strips, cut to length on bandsaw

assembled, ready for stain and finish -p.64

finished

Elm - a beautiful wood for special crosses

While in Kentucky in May, I purchased some 4/4 rough sawn Elm, a wood I have never worked with.  I planed down a piece and initially made three handsome crosses, 4 1/2" x 2 11/16", 7/8" wide and about 5/8" thick.  I'm really pleased with the finished product.
I gave one to Susan Garriss in memory of Braxton, a former shipmate on the USS Arcturus (AF-52) at his funeral last week.  I will give one to Claire in memory of her Dad who went to the Lord this week after 97 years; he was a great man and made many crosses over the years.  The third I will put in my collection.
This brings my total of crosses made, most given away, to 2618.

Puritan Pine stain and 2 coats of satin polyurethane

4/4 rough sawn and planed board

p.62

60 Antique Cypress - finished

These are from the batch mentioned in my 4/23 post after two coats of polyurethane and rubbing between coats on a piece of burlap.  There's much more wood where they came from.  I'm very pleased with them.

p60

Antique Cypress - tight grain

Several years ago while visiting Antique Woods of Louisiana in Sunset, LA, I picked up a piece of old tight grained cypress that had been used to test some stains.  One side was gray stained, the other had dark brown on one end and a lighter brown on the other end.  So I cut a strip from it, resewed it and made 120 crosses.  60 are gray on one side (rough sawn) and planed natural on the other; these I left natural, unfinished.  The other 60 I stained, some with walnut and some with puritan pine, then gave two coats of poly.

dadoes cut

gray stain rough sawn, natural sanded unfinished

sanded stained, rough sawn stained, rough sawn walnut stained

p60

30 Walnut crosses ready for Easter

From a small piece of walnut 20 1/2" x 1 3/4", on 3/4/2019 I resawed and planed to result in 2 pieces 1/4" thick.  Optimizing the wood, I chose to make 30 crosses 2 7/16" x 1 1/2".  I finished them during Holy Week bringing my total to 2495.

p60a

My Collection

As of this writing on 3/8/2019, I have made over 2400 crosses and given most all of them away.

I really enjoy making crosses, usually in batches from 15 to 100 or so, keeping one from each batch.  Most are plain crosses but beautiful, some from hard wood, some from soft wood, varying in size and type of wood and finish.  I carve the 16 corners; that's over 38,000 corners, so I guess you could say that along the way "I've cut some corners."

The most joy is in giving them away, simple gifts with a great meaning.  I've been asked "How much do you sell them for?"  I've answered "They are free.  The price was paid 2000 years ago."  They are a great object for evangelism.  When I give a cross away, the response can be so touching.  I plan to keep making them and giving them away as long as I am able.

samples from my collection