Live Edge Table

  At the beginning of June I started a couple of live edge projects. The bowl went pretty well and has found a home.  The other project was a much bigger slab, that I turned into a coffee table.

  The table is thirty inches round (more of less) and the emerald ash borer was under the bark the whole way round. The legs are elm, for contrast.  I also used elm because it has a history here similar to ash.  Dutch elm disease killed off thousands of elm trees in Ontario when I was a kid just like the ash borer situation now. 

  I sanded the end grain to 220 grit, sealed it and gave it five coats of water based poly.  Water based finishes are different.  You can see from this photo that it goes on milky, but once dry it is perfectly clear. The table gets delivered to its new home tomorrow.  I hope my cousin will be pleased.

  This time I did not turn the legs on my lathe.  I made them mostly with hand tools.  Next blog will be the process.  I like the results and it wasn't a big a task as you might think.  Once I made a jig for the drilling the legs holes the process was quite straight forward.

  cheers ianw

 

Quilt Rack

 

  Several years ago I made a quilt rack for out bedroom.  I think I made the rack before I owned a band saw or even a jig saw.  It was all straight lines and worked okay.  For years blankets and quilts were hung on this rack.  

  A while  I decided that the rack did not please my eye. I wanted to improve the line of the design.

  I used my jig saw to cut some of the wood away and give the rack a bit more interesting shapes. After cutting away the  wood I used my Bosch Colt router with a round over bit to add detail to the edges.

The rounded edge and contrasting colour made for a nice effect, I think.

  This project shows me how much my woodworking skills and tools has changed over the years.

cheers ianw

Live Edge Projects- finished

 Traditionally 'live edge' projects leave the bark on to add texture and interest to the table/bowl/ charcuterie board etc.  Recently I have made a couple of things following this thinking. My most recent projects made use of Ash wood.  In our area, (ontario) the emerald ash borer beetle has attacked and killed millions of board feet of mature ash trees.  There are worm holes in some of my latest projects, however, when the bark is stripped off  completely the result is interesting and a bit different.

  

  This is a 12 inch round of ash.  I removed most of the bark, actually most of it dried and fell off, I just helped it along.  The edge is a different colour and texture and this will be turned into a three legged stool/side table. It will sit beside a chair and hold a snack and drink or can be used for a causal seat when there is a crowd. 

  The next barkless project turned out to be amazing.  I had an oval shaped cut off and began carving the inside out to make a bowl.  ( see previous blog) Carving end grain ash is definately a power tool task.  I used my arbortech turbo plane to rough the bowl.  Next was time using grinding bits in a drill and smaller bits in a dremel too. I then used just about every kind and size of sander I own. The finish was mostly one inch sanding disks and hand work.  The inside is good, but the star of this project is when I pried all the bark off.

  The bowl is a 14 inch oval and the entire outside is this mass of worm channels.  I gave the bowl two coats of Minwax water based sealer and two coats of water based polycrylic. I am happy with rhe result, application is real easy and clean up is effortless.  I know I get a good finish more regularly than I did with oil based varnish and never have issues with runs.  

  The bowl is finished inside so will be for dry things, chips etc. only.

cheers ianw