I started making Christmas gifts for family and friends. My wife wanted me to see the "Prayer cross" that some stores are selling. I liked the idea, but not the wood. I made mine out of spalted Maple. They are about 5" high and easily held in praying hands. I know several of my family members will love this. I selected the best areas of spalt, drilled holes w/forstner drill, cut each with jig saw and used the band saw to compete each. Then rough sanded with my spindle sander (smallest shaft) to give it the rough hewn look. I went thru the extra efforts cutting them out to save other areas for future use.

THose are Beautiful! They look soft and warm to the hand.

Those are really neat, Ron. The spalted maple is very pretty. Thanks for the instructional, too. 

Edited February 12, 20197 yr by Gene Howe

Beautifully envisioned and done Ron.

Glad you shared.

Wow that gives me some ideas for some “turned” crosses. 

14 minutes ago, Charles Nicholls said:

Wow that gives me some ideas for some “turned” crosses. 

Would love to see those results.

Just now, Artie said:

Would love to see those results.

+1 

Ron those are beautiful, also nice to get ahead On Christmas presents.

Those look really good, that maple looks real old. To my eye it looks like 3 are finished and one is unfinished, but they all look good.

Herb

1 hour ago, Artie said:

Would love to see those results.

I’ll see if I can find some suitable wood for a few trials 😊. 

38 minutes ago, Dadio said:

Those look really good, that maple looks real old. To my eye it looks like 3 are finished and one is unfinished, but they all look good.

Herb

All are finished, however the colors and spalting make finishes look different due to different rates of absorption. Some of the spalt can be very soft and at times unusable. 

Just a safety reminder........if you use any kind of spalted wood, use eye and breathing protection during the work and shop/machine/clothing clean up. There can be some really bad stuff in that decaying wood.

2 hours ago, Ron Altier said:

ome of the spalt can be very soft and at times unusable. 

Ran into this a few times myself.

Excellent work.  Those turned out great.