Apple - a special piece of wood?

 Apple is a light colored hardwood with some interesting grain.  I made 30 3" tall crosses 1/2" wide and 3/8" thick.  I used three different stains for unique results.

red mahogany, Ipswich pine, dark mahogany

The piece of apple may have been what I used to make my first apple crosses in 2010.

finished crosses

Mesquite - a rough board from Texas

 While visiting Comfort, TX we stopped at a sawmill and I picked out a 2" thick handsome piece of mesquite, gray and rough sawn.  When machined in early August, the beautiful pink of this hard wood looked so fine.

I cut some half inch wide strips and made three nice wall crosses about 6" tall.

stained with golden oak, a rich look

From a 7/16" thick piece, I made 36 crosses 7/16"x7/16"x2 13/16 tall.

And from another 7/16" thick piece came 6 beautiful wall crosses 5 1/2" tall and a small 1 3/4" cross.

page 101 of my notebook

Elm stained with Golden Oak

From a machined piece of elm 5/16" x 4 7/16' x 23 1/2", I made 55 crosses 1/4" wide, most 2 13/16" high, others 2 1/8" high.  I started them on 3/31 and finally finished them on 6/8.  Elm shows some nice wavy grain when stained.

stained with Minwax Golden Oak with 3 coats of Arm-R-Seal urethane

unfinished

strips cut with dados

There was a thin strip left over, so I glued two together and made a few extra crosses which can be seen in the finished view.

Star of David - Bat Mitzvah Gift

Today, June 8 my nephew's oldest daughter, Sofia, became a Bat Mitzvah. We are proud of her.  I made her a Star of David from a piece of mesquite as a special gift.  Back in January I started planning how to do it, made a prototype out of scrap pine to learn from my mistakes, and began the process in March with a nice piece of mesquite 5/16" x 2 5/8" x 25".  

Finished Star of David for Sofia

Stained and 3 coats of urethane

the Process (click image to enlarge)

Doing the layout and carefully cutting diagonal dadoes was challenging.

Cutting diagonal dado

Depth of cut = 1/2 thickness of board

Cutting triangles

I was able to make 7 stars.  The fits varied, some perfect, others mostly even.

Assembled with a good fit before sanding the faces

Staining with MinWax Golden Oak - a rich finish

Finished Stars of David

 

Sinker Cypress - edge grain

 From a piece of 5/16" sinker cypress that had its best grain on the edge, I made 42 crosses, most 2 13/16" high, a few 4 3/4" high.  The face grain wasn't what I wanted so I used the Thin Rip Guide to cut strips.  Turned them on their sides and laid out where to make dado cuts using the MatchFit Dado Stop.  See process notes from my journal, page 98.

thickness planing

cutting strips

edge grain nicer than face grain

ready for assembly

finished

Mesquite - 3"

Between March 2-11 from a 5/16" thick piece of mesquite, I made 25 3" tall crosses from 3/8" wide strips.  

Crosses made during Lent

These will be set aside with about 50 more from other wood to be given to those attending the 20th anniversary of the Rejoicing Spirits worship service for those with disabilities at Calvary Lutheran Church in West Chester, PA on October 20.

layout

dado cuts

ripped strips

assembled, corners carved

staining with golden oak

finished, 3 coats urethane

Mesquite - my favorite wood

I really enjoy making crosses from the beautiful piece of mesquite from Texas that was given to me years ago by a great artist in New Mexico, John Geldersma.  The natural color of the wood is pinkish; it sands so nicely.  A coat of Minwax Golden Oak stain brings out a very rich, deeper color.  These 24 crosses (2 9/16"  high) were made in a couple of weeks, including 3 coats of Arm-R-Seal satin urethane.

The original board.  Used one piece.

Resewed to result in 3 pieces, 5/16" thick after planing.

One piece results in 24 crosses

Layout using a story stick

Cutting dado

Ripping strips 1/2" wide

Sanded with corners cut

Staining with Golden Oak stain