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