Mike Stafford
Member
- Messages
- 2,359
- Location
- Coastal plain of North Carolina
There is a large hardwood dealer in Raleigh that I used to visit as often as I could. The only limiting factor for visiting or not was whether I had any money. It didn't do much good to go there and just drool on the wood.
On one occasion I went and was looking through the wood and came across a piece of curly maple just loaded with compression curl that was in the scrap pile. It had some splits and knots and looked like one of those crooked twisted 2x4's you can buy these days at Lowe's. It was almost 12 feet long. I asked one of the salesmen I knew about that piece of wood and he said nobody will buy it so you can just have it.
I cut it roughly in half so it would fit in my car and took it home. I looked it over carefully and decided I could get enough wood out of it for a jewelry box. I sawed it into pieces and stacked them up on stickers and then piled some barbell plates on the stack to straighten out the wood's evil ways.
Several months later I started sawing the wood into manageable sizes for a jewelry box I wanted to make for a customer who was going to give it to his daughter for graduation. I designed this box to operate without hinge pins or hinges. As you lift the lid by the handle the back of the lid falls into a slot that holds it vertical. When you are ready to close it you lift the lid by the handle and lower it down until it is closed. He wanted me to line it in red velvet which is what I did. I didn't add any dividers also at his request. but I did use walnut for the trays and lid supports. The feet were trimmed in walnut also.
Not bad for a piece of wood that was in the scrap pile. I wish I had a picture of the board before I beat it into submission.
It's a shame this lousy scan does not show how gorgeous this wood really is.
On one occasion I went and was looking through the wood and came across a piece of curly maple just loaded with compression curl that was in the scrap pile. It had some splits and knots and looked like one of those crooked twisted 2x4's you can buy these days at Lowe's. It was almost 12 feet long. I asked one of the salesmen I knew about that piece of wood and he said nobody will buy it so you can just have it.
I cut it roughly in half so it would fit in my car and took it home. I looked it over carefully and decided I could get enough wood out of it for a jewelry box. I sawed it into pieces and stacked them up on stickers and then piled some barbell plates on the stack to straighten out the wood's evil ways.
Several months later I started sawing the wood into manageable sizes for a jewelry box I wanted to make for a customer who was going to give it to his daughter for graduation. I designed this box to operate without hinge pins or hinges. As you lift the lid by the handle the back of the lid falls into a slot that holds it vertical. When you are ready to close it you lift the lid by the handle and lower it down until it is closed. He wanted me to line it in red velvet which is what I did. I didn't add any dividers also at his request. but I did use walnut for the trays and lid supports. The feet were trimmed in walnut also.
Not bad for a piece of wood that was in the scrap pile. I wish I had a picture of the board before I beat it into submission.
It's a shame this lousy scan does not show how gorgeous this wood really is.
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