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.

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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

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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.

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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

9/2/2017 - Harvey Crosses

I usually don't share emotions in this blog, but it is the most special part of making and giving away crosses.  Here is a story from two years ago.

In late August of 2017, Hurricane Harvey devastated the Houston area, Beaumont, and SW Louisiana.  About 1000 displaced persons from the Vidor and Orange area, just east of Beaumont and north of Port Arthur, TX were relocated to the mega shelter at LSUA, just south of Alexandria.  Most had several feet of water in their homes, had been evacuated, and were housed at the shelter for about a week.

Concurrently, I had started a batch of nearly 100 crosses made from heart pine.  I'm very particular in finishing crosses.  After assembling and sanding the faces, I carve the corners and hand sand the edges.  Then I finish with stain and a couple of coats of polyurethane.  In this case, I had 100 crosses that had not been finished.  I knew that it would take one or two weeks to finish them.  Most of the people would have been moved to more permanent housing by then.

Something (I know what) moved me to decide to take the unfinished yet beautiful crosses down to the mega shelter and give them away.  So on Saturday afternoon, September 12, 2017, I took them and personally gave these plain crosses, simple gifts, to nearly 100 dear people.  The responses were so moving - tears, hugs, thank yous,  blessings, and other things.  It was the best way I could have spent a hot, sunny, afternoon.  It is why I make these crosses.  I was so moved on the giving end, and I could go home to a nice, dry home.  One can only imagine being on the receiving end, perhaps with no place to go.

I did save one Harvey cross to help me remember the special experience and the special people.

Method to cut cross pieces with Radial Arm Saw

This is a method that I developed in 2008 to cut the dadoes on the two pieces of the cross for the cross lap joint.  I used my old Craftsman radial arm saw (circa 1970) at that time.  In February of 2015 I purchased a table saw, gave the radial arm saw away, and developed a new, better, and safer process which I will document in a future post.

(click on image to enlarge)