Edge grain Heart Pine

 From the same piece of heart pine as the small unfinished crosses, I made fifteen 5 1/16" wall crosses.  These were all faced with edge grain.

assembled

finished - natural stain and 3 coats of urethane

strips (cut to show edge grain) before assembly

Heart Pine - unfinished wood

 Some wood in its' natural state just doesn't need stain or urethane; such was the case when I made 17 crosses from a piece of heart pine given to me years ago by Milford Crumplar.  One side was rough sawn by a large blade at the sawmill.  The other side when cut, was very resinous and made the workshop smell wonderful.  It was slow sanding the crosses on the belt sander. The crosses were 2 3/4" tall including a couple from scrap that were 1 3/4" tall, 5/16" thick and 7/16" wide.

natural "finished" crosses

rough sawn (strips used in next batch of wall crosses)

notebook and crosses

Reused rough sawn Cypress

 I had an old cypress board that was rough sawn and stained with various stains, and it had some wood rot.  I made some beautiful 5/16" x 7/16" crosses, 41 were 2 13/16" tall, 7 from scrap were 1 3/16" tall.  When stained with golden oak along with 3 coats of urethane, they really looked nice.  I was able to use the wood rot to advantage in some of the crosses.

wood rot added character

48 finished crosses

rough sawn surface

inside matching grain