Cypress crosses - 6" high

Using the Thin Rip Guide, ripped five 1/2" wide pieces using antique sinker cypress.  I made ten 6" high handsome wall crosses.  Stained with Puritan Pine which looks so good on cypress and applied 3 coats of urethane.

 

Antique Sinker Cypress

Milled an old piece of sinker cypress given to me several years ago by Jenny Royer to 1 5/8 x 3 x 19 5/8.  Resewed it and planed it to 4 pieces 5/16" thick.

 

Crosses to India

 I had the opportunity to share 100 crosses with my friend, Diwakar, who is a pastor in Mumbai.  He will share them with many.

Hickory

 From a 1/4" thick piece of hickory about 4" x 24", I made 26 handsome crosses 2 3/4" high, 1/2" wide strips.

Alder - some thin, some wide

Resewed a piece of alder 4 1/2 x 11 1/4 to a piece 3/8" thick and another 3/16" thick. 

From the thicker piece, made 18 crosses, mostly 2 3/4" high.  The strips are 7/16" wide.  Stained with Ipswich Pine and coated with 3 coats of urethane.

From the thin piece, I cut strips 1/8" thick, the thickness of my saw blade, and made the pieces 3/16" thick.  I made 24 crosses ranging from 3 1/4" high down to 3/4" high.  I stained various shades using Puritan Pine, Ipswich Pine, Dark Mahogany, and Black Walnut and applied 3 coats of urethane.

Rough sawn Heart Pine

I machined a piece of rough sawn one-side heart pine into 2 pieces - rough 1-side is 3/8"x2 3/8"x24 5/8", smooth both sides is 1/2" thick.  This is beautiful old wood with some internal "insect work".  From the thicker piece I made 9 wall crosses 4 7/8" tall.  From the smooth piece I made 25 small crosses 2 7/8" tall.

staining the rough sawn, handsome color

finished

pieces ready for assembly

finished 2 sides smooth

cutting dadoes using MatchFit

Spanish Cedar and Sugar Pine

My dear friend, the late Milford Crumplar, made crosses from one piece of wood on his scroll saw.  He gave me a piece of Spanish cedar on which he had drawn a Celtic cross to cut out and had drilled holes for his saw blade.  I filled the holes with dowels, resewed it, planed to 9/32" and made 28 small crosses, 2 3/8" high, 1/2" wide dados.  While I was at it, I planed a scrap piece of sugar pine to the same thickness and made 10 crosses 2 5/8" high so I could use similar setup.  I finished them all with Puritan Pine stain and 3 coats of urethane, completing in 3 weeks.

finished - Spanish cedar (above), sugar pine (below)

Milford's layout, holes plugged with dowels

resawing

reasawn

plan for Spanish cedar

layout on sugar pine

1/2" dado cuts

ripping strips on sugar pine

journal

Koa from Hawaii

 An odd shape scrap of a fine wood resulted in 4 handsome wall crosses about 5" tall, 1/2" thick, 5/8" wide  .  When stained with Puritan Pine, the wood went from pinkish to a beautiful rich color. One went to Susan, one to her brother who was the source of the wood, one for my collection, and one for a future gift.   

nice grain and color

planing - hot glued to a base 

planed with matched grain

cutting 5/8" wide strips

assembled, one from scrap

journal notes

Hickory to round out the year

On 12/27 I did the layout for 30 hickory crosses.  It is one of my favorite woods for the finished cross with beautiful, wavy grain, but it can be challenging to work with.  I finished the crosses about two weeks later,  2 3/4 " high, 7/16" wide, stained beautifully with Puritan Pine and finished with 3 coats of satin urethane.

This one goes in my collection!

ready to cut dadoes

strips ready to cut in pieces for assembly

my worksheet

Year End Surge - Oak and Walnut various sizes

 During the latter part of December, I made a variety of small and wall crosses and finished them all together stained with Puritan Pine and 3 coats of urethane. I have started using several of my newer tools such as box joint blades for 3/8" dado cuts, Microjig 1/2 Fitfinder to set blade height for dado cuts, Woodpeckers Thin Rip Guide for cutting strips after dado cuts, Microjig Matchfit Dado Stop for cutting dadoes in wall crosses.  They are all beneficial to me, and I would recommend to others.

finished crosses

walnut worksheet for small crosses

journal notes for oak crosses