Rough Sawn Heart Pine

From a piece of rough sawn heart pine with dark saw marks on the surface, I made 40 crosses, half with the rough sawn on the face, half from the interior wood, 3 inches high.  Stained with Puritan Pine stain and a couple of coats of polyurethane brought out a rich color.

beautiful rough sawn surface 

dados cut, strips ripped to perfect width

assembled

finished

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Spanish Cedar - varied sizes

This wood had such a nice color that I kept one for myself unstained.  I made 19 of various sizes and shapes. Also a couple from oak.

natural color, unstained

staining

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from a scrap of Walnut

These six handsome tall and thin crosses were made from a piece of walnut in my scrap bin.

finished walnut crosses with elm crosses

Pandemic Elm Crosses

As the corona virus pandemic swept through the world, we isolated ourselves at home.  We worshipped virtually, visited virtually, and relaxed amidst the tension from the news.  This gave me an opportunity to spend some time working in our gardens and making some crosses in the workshop.  Enjoy this photo video of the process which I started on 3/17 through staining on 3/24.  Then a couple of coats of polyurethane to finish them.


 Made from elm in Louisiana, USA.

48 Apple Crosses

From my shop attic I found a 6"x6 1/2' piece of 5/4" rough sawn apple.  It was probably from Pennsylvania.  I cut it into 3 pieces and machined one of them, then ripped and resawed it and planed it.  Then I made 48 very nice crosses, 2 5/8" high.  I stained them with a hickory stain resulting in a very warm color.  A couple of coats of polyurethane sanding lightly in between coats resulted in some very nice crosses.

finished apple crosses

drying

dadoed, ripped, ready for cutting before assembling

Jig for cutting crosspiece ends

When making a batch of small crosses, I use a piece of wood usually no longer than 24" and a few inches wide.  I plane it to the desired thickness of the crosses and then determine the optimal lengths of the vertical and horizontal (crosspiece) pieces of the crosses.  Typically I use the Phi ratio for a good looking cross; that is another subject.  On one surface of the board, I draw lines across the board usually alternating between vertical and horizontal pieces and leave "about" 1/16" between for eventual cutting on the bandsaw.  I also mark the width of each dado to guide alignment on the table saw. I cut the dadoes to the chosen width of each piece, and the depth of exactly half of the board thickness. 

layout of cross pieces (single line is center of dado cuts) 

After cutting dados across a board, the board is cut into strips the width of the dado.  Each strip is cut around the dado either to the length of the vertical piece of the cross or the crosspiece.  When cutting the crosspieces on the bandsaw, regardless of how well I have laid out the lengths of the crosspieces, I frequently do not get the exact length on each side.  This jig solves that problem.

the original jig in use

a simple refinement - 1/8" square key stock taped to table

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2020 - Oak for first batch

The first batch of the new year is from a thick piece of oak.  I sliced a 5/16" thick piece 3 1/2" x 18" which yielded 59 crosses 2 11/16 high, 1/2" wide.  From a piece of scrap cypress that I used for setup, I made 9 more crosses.

Some I stained with Puritan Pine, others with a hickory stain, both resulting in a nice toffee color.

nice insect damage

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