A nice transformation

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156
Location
Oklahoma City, OK
I've been working on a project for church, some crosses that we'll be selling at a craft fair. The project itself is exceedingly simple, just some 1x2s with a half lap joint, sanded smooth. Considering where they started out, I think the wood transformed quite nicely.

Here's what the wood looked like when I got it (my apologies for the bad photography)

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About 6 months ago I saw an add in Craigslist for a company that was giving away old pallets. They were the big pallets, the kind that you ship the bed of a truck on. The skids were made of white oak so I picked up 4 and brought them home. They sat in my garage, drying out and getting acclimated. I started cutting into them, splitting them from 4x4s to 1x2s. I had the dickens of a time doing that too because they were horribly warped. As I started cutting them on my table saw, they warped even more and would bind my blade quite often. I wound up having to put wedges in the splits as they left the table saw just to keep them far enough apart that they wouldn't bind. The skids were rough, almost like they were created using a splitter rather than a band saw, etc. Using only my table saw, a finish sander with 80 then 120 grit sand paper, they transformed into this;

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Not all of them have this type of figure but they all came out quite nicely. Some even have the signs of being quartersawn. Not a bad deal at all considering the price I paid for the wood. ;)
 
Very nice. Great re-use of material. LOML brings me home odds and ends from her work that have made their way into a few projects over the years.
 
Thanks guys.

Larry - yep, it's all white oak. All of it came from the same 8' length of wood. It started out about 5x5 but by the time I finished shaving off the rough outside, smoothing out as best I could the bows that were in it, and quartering it, I was left with pieces that were in the range of 1.5x2 or 2x2.
 
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