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