At one time I had one of the largest collections of useless teak. Most of it was acquired in 1984 and 1985. It was used for many boat and railroad projects with the last being burnt as fire starters in a Tiki bar in Cedar Key, Florida. Firewood is a great collection, bringing many hours of warmth and joy.
Ric(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cry.gif) teak. . . in the fire. . . its a sacrilege. . .say it isn’t so. I know a guy who burnt and entire black walnut tree as fire wood. The shame of it all.
Naw nothing wrong with firewood at all. I don’t think I could bun teak unless I was freezing to death. . . but I get it.
And when I awoke I was alone
This bird had flown
So I lit a fire
Isn’t it good Norwegian wood?
I just retrieved about 40 1" thick x2-3" wide pieces of Apitong, a south Pacific hardwood like mahogony, tight straight grain wood used as decking on containers and trailer floors. The guy was going to burn all the waste cuts , wish I would have grabbed more of what he had.all of it has a tongue on one side and will be used. Train trestle parts and more.
Hmm never heard of it, so I had to google it. Since it is used on truck beds it has to be straight, durable, and rot resistant. It looks great, long straight grain and a nice warm color. I’m jealous.
Christmas 2016 is here. The lathe is fixed and I am also playing with the Cricut seeing what it can do. Here are the three projects that are done so far.
One of my wife’s presents.
This was made with the Cricut. I took pictures of my kids and in MS Paint made silhouettes of them. I transferred them those images to the Cricut design center and made them into cut files. Then cut the veneer directly on the machine. This is not your wife’s craft veneer with the fancy paper backing either. This is manly real wood veneer that is pretty dang thick. I forgot to set the cutter depth and had to finish trimming out the pieces with an exacto knife. But ct to a deeper depth it will go right through with ease. I am using the German carbide tip cutter. But I just ran the maple first and then ran a sheet of black walnut. It did rewire a bit of griming to get it to fit perfect. But all in all it will be a great tool for inlay work.
Next was lathe time and my mom’s present.
The body is a piece of western soft maple. The top is black walnut limb. The finials are some stabilized wood that I cannot pronounce that was dyed green, its used for pen blanks. Fun little project. This is a Christmas ornament and for reference the bird is about 1" tall.
Next is my Mother-in-Laws yarn bowl.
For those that have no idea what that is its for a ball of yarn to roll around in while knitting; the yarn is fed through the curly que. It is made from balck walnut limb. It is about 6-8" in diameter. This is the first time I have turned a piece of limb wood this big in this orientation with the centers going in the same direction as the limb. Always before it was smaller pieces. Up til now I have always done it cross grain for my bowls. This gave a much different effect and is quite striking. It has lights, darks and even some grey wood. The bottom of the bowl only goes as deep as the narrow waist section. Then I widened the bowl out and left a heavy base figuring this would lend itself better to pulling yarn. Who knows.
I have at least three other projects in the works. Two of them are using different mediums that will show off what the Cricut can do for you. More to come.
Unbelievable! They are finished! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
You make a great Santa’s helper! Excellent work.
Yer bud,
John
Nice stuff Devon. Aren’t you Santa’s little elf! 
little?
David Maynard said:
little?
David,
It was meant to be a snarky play on words! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)
Thanks guys, I don’t know about little elf, I more resemble Santa and the older I get my beard looks more and more like his.
Nice work !
i second, what rooster said.
it is seldom today, to find people, who actually make gifts themselves.
Wow, Devon! Outstanding woodworking.
Korm,
It is somewhat of dying tradition. I come from an artistic family and we all love to make things. So this year we vowed to make each present. We exchange with one other person by name draw. I haven’t shown that present yet. But I just love making things and it is always appreciated for the effort no matter how good it turns out. So I am always looking to make as much as I can.
The sheer talent among us continually surprises me. Nice work, Devon.
Devon Sinsley said:
Korm, It is somewhat of dying tradition. I come from an artistic family and we all love to make things. So this year we vowed to make each present. We exchange with one other person by name draw. I haven’t shown that present yet. But I just love making things and it is always appreciated for the effort no matter how good it turns out. So I am always looking to make as much as I can.
Beautiful stuff, Devon. Unfortunately, no-one in my family appreciates the trains that I make for them.
well, Devon stay that way. even if it might mean, that you’ll not meet your deadline for the layout.
(not to mention, that we others have more fun, if you don’t meet it…)
Pete, one year I made a display shelf unit for my mom’s sugar bowl collection. I could not find the honey maple stain I wanted, so over the course of a few nights, I mixed and experimented until I got the look I wanted. So my mom painted the darn thing white and decoupaged some frilly paper onto it. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-frown.gif)
Pete I have thought about making trains and then accepting returns.,
Dave,
Oh I feel your pain. I made a real nice Birdseye maple freestanding coat rack for a friend. A few years later it was painted bright pink and in their new daughter’s room