Sapwood and knots

Nice story and project Daren. I am quickly learning a similar lesson. Since I recently started turning, I have discovered that the ugliest, narliest hunks of wood have the most character and beauty within.

-- Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit.

I’m glad you had your conversion, Daren. This is great wood put to use very well.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Amen. That is a nice looking stool by the way, I like the way the miters allow the grain to wrap around the corners. This is a very good example of what you are talking about. I noticed you had made a similar piece by gluing up maple and walnut. The natural contrast of the sapwood here is so elegant, mother nature provided the same contrast in a more fluid and dynamic way. By the way I think you mentioned in an earlier post you had borrowed a friends commercial jig to cut the splines. That is a very easy jig to make. I used a scrap piece of 2X4, set the miter on my table saw to 45 degrees, the height about 1/4” shy of cutting through the board, and ripped a “V” channel out of the center by running it through again the other way around making a 90* V. Then crosscut a dado across the top the width of the router template bushing. (done, or you could use your handy finger jointing jig to make multiple evenly spaced slots for the router) It would probably be easier just to send you a picture. Anyway I couldn’t agree more with your philosophy on “defects”, thanks for spreading the good word.

-- A thing of beauty is a joy forever... - Keats

daren, love the use of butterfly dovetails they really make the piece pop. keep it up.

-- Roper - master of sawdust-

Read your story. I feel your frustration. Over the years, I too have learned to be more creative with character in wood. The coffee table I buit had a big knot in the top. I used my router to make a round plug to fill in where the knot is/was. I think those butterflies look better. Thanks.

Welcome to the dark side, Nice bench. remember the best wood is in the crouch..:)

-- Joey~~Sabina, Ohio http://sleepydogwoodworking.blogspot.com/

Daren,

This is a nice project and the contrast adds a lot of visual interest. I read your story with interest. I have often said that the story behind a project is usually as important as the piece itself. Your story only serves to confirm that this still holds true. What others see as “defects” are only opportunities to add character and detail to a project.

Thanks for the post and the story. I enjoyed both.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Your bench, the choice of wood, the butterfly dovetails and the story behind are very interesting. Thanks for posting.
Sharad

-- patanjali

I’m so glad you’ve seen the light (and the dark, at the same time). This is a really nice stool/bench. It does have a lot of “character.”

-- Check out my new website! http://www.theeasellife.com

That is really cool…

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

You made me see the light again. I hate boring grain wood. The wilder the grain the better. (It’s just hard to come by and afford) I have made a couple of pieces with birdseye and sapele pommele that turned out nice. I tried staining projects with stain alone, but the blotching from the missed step of using wood conditioner, killed the project. Plus if anyone knows of a stain that doesn’t still stink after a month, I’d like to know. I’m stuck on minwax brand #410 honey pine gloss as my preferred method. I’ve read articles about finishing techniques such as french polish, but haven’t had postable results. Anyway I really like your project and explanation.

-- so much wood, so little time. Bradford.

Why stain ? Some may say “if you don’t know how to finish you are not a woodworker”. I say if you do not know how to start you are not a woodworker.

-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/

Another nice bench project with the dovetail keys- what are the dimensions on this one?

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

I’m glad you have seen the light also. Good posting. I first saw the “light” in sap wood when I accidentally discovered the work of Cody artisan John Gallis maybe close to 10 years ago.

I remember the first time I saw something John Gallis had made in a magazine, and it wasn’t square, rectangular, or “normal.” I just couldn’t understand how he did it, where the ideas sprang from, how did he find that wood? Oooh, that walnut he used!

So, I was smitten. Not like I was when I first met my wife sitting behind her desk at work in a smart blue dress, but so moved that all of my previous notions and ideas about furniture making just went blank. Gallis can have that affect on a guy. I’ve never seen blue dresses the same since, nor furniture. All by accident.

I’ve discovered others since that first exposure, but Gallis’ work moves me the most. A true genius he is, and later discovered that he was also a great person, taking time to offer advice and encouragement to me in my own journey with wood.

So, I started looking for his work in other places, and ended up in Cody in 2006 at the Western Design Conference mainly because he told me it was a good place to show my work. Then, I discovered Dan Mack’s limb/tool pieces, and that added another whole mystery to using strange and unique things in the work. There have been other influences since then.

This discovering has been Breaking my mind free of the European, Asian, and historical influences of what Furniture is supposed to look like. Earthshaking, unsettling, paradigm breaking.

This is the sort of stuff that wakes me up at night with ideas. Not because I’m stressing out over an upcoming difficult glue-up, like I used to do. And of course, in my mid forties now, I don’t dream of the things a younger guys does, at least not so much.

I stopped waking up worrying over money problems several years ago, not because there aren’t any problems, but because the idea generation process is so overwhelming and powerful, that it has pushed those money worries out during my sleeping hours now. I just worry over those problems during daylight now. Wow, dreaming about knots now.

All of this has pushed me to the point that a wood mill is a high-priority item for my life. I can push back the big surface planer that I want for now, a woodmill is the “real” money maker idea for me. Not because I can sell the wood, or reduce the cost of the wood that I buy, but it will allow me to discover the gems that only a guy who cuts up trees can find. So, now you can add, “woodmill dreaming” to the night time interruptions.

Once you discover the gems in wood that make it “abi-normal”, you can be released from the normal way to see wood, and let it naturally decorate a room. It is so freeing.

When I can find wood like that, I don’t need to carve it, as my carving pales in comparison to the natural look of extradorinarily unique wood, such as a huge knot. This was the essence of the Nakashima genius, still being done by Mira and her team. Their work was another great discovery for me several years ago, causing me to study and see how they use the natural odd things in wood to make a statement in a room.

Once you break your mind free of the square/rectangular/straight paradigm, there are many ways to use wood you hadn’t considered before. This process is still blowing my mind, and I am excited to see where it runs out in my work in the coming years.

I have been enjoying seeing this evolution happening in my work the past 3-4 years, but more importantly, the response by the buying public. When I have taken pieces to a show, the Arts & Crafts pieces show well, and people comment on them, and admire the carving, and talk about their memories reading books on Grandpa’s lap while sitting in his Morris Chair, and it is all warm and fuzzy, and encouraging.

BUT, when they see a piece in my booth with huge knots, and smoothed natural edges, and sap wood, and the “freedom” that this gives off, they just stand there and say “wow.” It isn’t my “work” that got their attention, but rather the natural beauty that I released from the wood. The downside for the woodworker is that you can’t go online and buy “plans” for a piece like that. Conventional woodworking doesn’t work. Cooooool. I gotta get some of that!

Good posting, caused me to break my silence and get excited for you, and where this is heading you.
Mark

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flint Hill's Artisan

Dorje it’s 16” tall, 16” wide and 12” deep.

-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/

Great stool Daren. Nice comments Mark.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

well put

-- "when you think youre going to slow, slow down just a little bit more" .... Pop's

Been saying this for years …” Mother Nature RULES !!! “

-- Dusty56@comcast.net