A few years ago when I was over at the home of our Fearless Leader John Morris dropping off some stuff, John had 3 rough sawn boards of Madrone that he had been given that were just sitting on the side of his house and asked if I would be interested in them. Well, being a good Woodworker I said "Sure thing John!" and threw them in the back of my truck. When I got home, as a good Woodworker, I removed them from my truck and put them up in the overhead lumber storage in my shop and left them there for the next 3 years (to season ;-) ). This past month I was starting up some cutting boards for the Christmas Season and I remember those Madrone boards up in storage. Now Madrone is in the Mahogany family and specifically grows in the coastal regions of the North West from Northern California into British Colombia. It is known for having some very nice grain and coloring and is used heavily as veneers as it can have some very nice grain patterns. Once I ran them through the planer I sprayed on a bit of Denatured Alcohol to see what the grain looked like. Well, it was obvious that these boards could not go into cutting boards as the grain was way too cool for that. So now I had to figure out what I wanted to make out of them. 

I had wanted to make a wall mounted coat rack for our family room for awhile that would fit into the Craftsman-Arts & Crafts-Mission style. So I went online to: http://www.houseofantiquehardware.com and looked at their cast iron coat hooks and found some that fit the bill and weren't too pricey. One of the boards had a wavy live edge all along one side and also had an interesting knot in it, so I laid it out so the knot would really show up in the piece. For finish I just used Watco Danish Oil in the "Natural" color since this is a coat rack and not something that will get a lot of wear and tear. I then put on a light coat of paste wax so the wood feels buttery smooth. The Danish Oil took the wood to a nice warm darker color and really accentuated the different grain and color variations. In the Mahogany family with the grain there is a lot of chatoyance, which is an optical quality in which the areas of light and dark grains shift with the light and angle of view. So with it hung on the wall the appearance changes in the coloring and grain depending  on where you are standing and how the light hits it. So I took a few photos outside in the sun to show it off. With the rest of the Madrone I will make up a couple more coat racks for Christmas or maybe a set of mirror frames for when we remodel our master bath down the road. So we will see.

This is the trimmed off piece from the board of Madrone that I used for the coat rack without any finish on it.

Here is one of the forged iron Hat/Coat hooks. Overall length is 6"

Here is the Coat Rack hung up in our family room. The lighting is not real good in that area, even with a floor lamp by it. Note. The display case above is white oak with a golden oak stain on it.

Here are a couple of photos outside in the direct sun light.

 

 

 

That's gorgeous, Allen! The hooks are perfect!

looks Great~!!! Nice hooks

 

Very cool!! And that board has some really nice grain. I can see why you wanted to save it.