I got these two bookmatched walnut boards off of ebay. If I remember the size correctly, they are approx 41” long, 7-3/4” wide, 15/16” thick. I’ve been spending my $$ buying wood I think is cool, but I haven’t bought any tools yet – hence no posted projects from me yet! lol I promise there will be some, someday ; )
Anyhow, I was the only bidder on these and I got them for just $9.00 and change plus shipping. I had it in my head that they would make cool doors to a lingerie or jewelry cabinet. They are crotch wood, and the pattern there and the sapwood are what caught my eye – I think I’ll put the door pulls in the sapwood. There are long strips of bark inclusions, and I like that, too. (texture freak!)
What I totally missed in the auction’s item description – and it was there – was the two whole walnuts that had been trapped in the bark inclusion. The seller talked about how they didn’t pop out during planing, and he had never seen anything like it before. One of the walnuts is easy to see & is whole, the other is crushed from time & pressure. I love it! Can I place a few drops of super glue in the bark voids to anchor it all tight?
Wow.. so awesome. Great steal! If there are voids in the walnuts, you might want to fill them.. epoxy or something. A half walnut shell would make a great door pull..
: ) You crack me up – they do look like they’re being served in a spoon!
It never even occured to me how appropiate walnuts would be as pulls. I have a large bowl of siver and gold painted ones I use as a Christmas decoration. To make pulls out of whole walnuts would be easy – sounds like a project! I was thinking about making silver metal clay walnut leaves as the pulls, too.
That walnut nut inside the wood is too cool. The odds of that surviving and finding those boards is huge. Great find. I should check out ebay, but I prefer to find my own when I can. I would use a very clear epoxy resin to fill in the voids. You can machine and sand it without harming tools and it will be like you are looking inside the tree but the surface will be smooth. I’ve become a bit of an expert at this in working with spalted woods
-- Dr. Ken, Florida - Durch harte arbeit werden Träume wahr.
I used to use a two part acrylic poly resin called Envirotex for jewelry making. It’s still available in craft stores, and I could experiment with it or a similar product on scrap. Envirotex tends to yellow, regardless of what they advertise. Any product recommendations? I’ll have to go light with the propane torch! lol (degassing the surface)
WOW, I am so jealous!!! I love rare boards like that. I would suggest West System 2 part epoxy, I fell in love with it, they now have multiple formulas for set speed, fillers, and colors of amber to clear. I have used it for tropical woods (after an alcohol wipe-down), hardening spalted/rotted wood, and for clear finishing. It does not interfere with varnish and ploy finishes, but prohibits staining.
EPJartisan, I appreciate the info on the epoxy. I’ll look for it on my next days off. It sounds like just what I need.
Trev, that’s some wild looking bark inclusion! At first I saw the image of a fish, then the “head” looked like a cat’s face – so maybe it’s a catfish? lol It kinda looks like a demented beaver, too. : ) I love looking for images, it’s like being a kid again looking at clouds…
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