Trivet

I made several of these trivets to give as gifts at Christmas. The technique was to use the bandsaw to cut almost through the piece of wood, advance it 1/4” and flip it to make the next cut. You end up with a piece of wood that will open like an accordion.
I took this piece and moistened it and put it in the microwave for a minute, this heated it enough to allow me to spread it and insert dowels to hold the strips apart. The third picture shows this process as it is drying, the clamp keeps it flat. I then mitered the sides. I found that doing the solid ends first worked best as you had a little wiggle room when doing the other two sides by sliding the dowels slightly to get your corners to line up. I then added a spline to give the corners a little more strength. To sand in between the cuts I put psa sandpaper on both sides of a scraping blade attached to my multitool.
Woods are ambrosia maple body and hard maple frame, with a bubinga spline. Finished with salad bowl oil.
I think I will give gift cards this year…

-- Rich in Richmond -- Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.