Summer before last I did a Presentation to our local woodworking group of using end grain to build things,besides cutting boards,to show off the wonderful effect of the grain patterns in other wise plain wood.

The first one is Russian Birch plywood. It is similar to Baltic Birch but a lesser quality cores. I ripped some strips 6" wide and 30" long from a sheet. Then stacked them up and glued them together. This gave me a log about 6"w x 8"h x 30" l . Then I resawed it on the band saw so the face was edge grain of the plywood. ,then made a box out of it. With the scraps left over I made a couple of small ones too.

Herb

Next I had this large piece of Doug Fir fireplace wood been laying around for a couple of years. It actually was the cut off of a stump that was around 30" in diameter. Then split across for firewood. I had tripped over it and decided to see what I could build out of it. It was all I could do to lift it up on the band saw to resaw. Instead if sawing it lengthwise ,I cut it cross wise to show the beautiful grain. Then i made a stool and a couple of boxes out of it. to show the grain,a jewel box and a tea caddy

Herb

This is the last one, it was a piece of apple firewood . It had some voids I had to fill with epoxy (I hate that stuff). 

Herb

Not enough words to describe how awesome all of those projects are

That is a lot of great work. I presume that the box and bench at bookmatch , it does wonders for the look and must have been a task to get it perfect.

Thanks for all the good words, it was a lot of fun to do.

 

It wasn't too hard, Gerald,I numbered the boards as they came off the saw, that way consecutive boards are a near match. Then it is a matter of which pair are the best match.

What I was trying to achieve was to show that if this was cut the same way as the grain .it would have looked like any old 2X4.

 

Awesome Herb.  Very unique effect.

My daughter in laws Granpa made this one back in the day before power tools. It had gotten wet one time and the top needed repair, so she asked me to fix it for her, which I happily did. He had lived in Spokane WA and had a black locust removed from his property and cut the branches into little wafers and made hexagon tiles out of them for the top. He also mixed in a couple of other woods. Those are worm holes in some of the tiles.

Herb

Edited October 31, 20169 yr by Dadio

7 hours ago, Chips N Dust said:

Not enough words to describe how awesome all of those projects are

you got that right....

Well done, Herb. That apple piece is especially nice, but all of them are very well done.

I feel very inadequate right now Herb... beautiful work!

Cal

Can't describe how awesome this display of your talents is Herb. Please consider taking the time to create a Gallery post for these. Your wooden hinges are amazing. Thanks!

Wow, wow and wow!  Can't imagine the amount of patience and sandpaper it took to make those!

 

Did  you silver leaf the inside of the dodecahedron?

3 hours ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Can't describe how awesome this display of your talents is Herb. Please consider taking the time to create a Gallery post for these. Your wooden hinges are amazing. Thanks!

I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

Herb

2 hours ago, lew said:

Wow, wow and wow!  Can't imagine the amount of patience and sandpaper it took to make those!

 

Did  you silver leaf the inside of the dodecahedron?

 

 

Lew you got the name right, LOL, I had to look it up , when I made it. That is aluminum duct tape inside. I had to apply it to the faces of the pentagons before I glued them together.then tape narrow strips to the joints as it was assembled, the last strips I had to apply through the opening. Kind of tricky.

Herb

4 minutes ago, Dadio said:

you got the name right

I was an avid follower of Carl Sagan. One of his series "Cosmos" programs talked about how the Greek mathematicians, the  Pythagoreans, discovered the 5th solid but  kept it secret. I used many of his subjects, when I taught electronics, to add background to some otherwise boring topics. The way he pronounced "dodecahedron " always stuck with me.

 

Anyway, beautiful job on those tight joints. Did you build a special jig for cutting them?

14 minutes ago, lew said:

Anyway, beautiful job on those tight joints. Did you build a special jig for cutting them?

 

What id did,Lew, was make a template of the shape of the pentagon and marked them on the flat stock. Then set my table saw blade on the correct angle. By using the miter gauge set on the angles of the sides of the pentagon I could just saw them out.

Then I laid them on the work bench inside down,after arranging them the way I wanted,taped the joints together with masking tape. I made the 2 halves separate. then turned them over, inside up , put glue on the joints and carefully closed them up to form half the piece. Did both the same way, .then finished putting on the silver tape on the inside joints on each half. Next I joined them together to form the whole piece and taped them tight. When the glue dried ,I finished taping the remaining joints through the hole.

Herb

1 hour ago, Dadio said:

I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

Herb

@John Moody @John Morris @Ron Dudelston @Ron Altier

 

IDK either, but bet one of these guys can coach you through it. IMHO, these projects have earned a place there. Probably a Tutorial somewhere.

 

I built a cabinet for my brother in law to house two pheasants he shot.  The case work was QSWO and it thought I'd try something cool for the top. I glued up some long hard maple and Mohagany sqaure stock then cut that across the grain to glue up into a checkerboard top. looks cool as all get out. 

 

1 hour ago, Kelso Chris said:

I built a cabinet for my brother in law to house two pheasants he shot.  The case work was QSWO and it thought I'd try something cool for the top. I glued up some long hard maple and Mohagany sqaure stock then cut that across the grain to glue up into a checkerboard top. looks cool as all get out. 

 

 

There are lots of nice ways to showcase end grain, and the glues we have available are really strong for glueing up boards to use up scraps.

Herb