2017 project mam

Dan Noren

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and here i thought that i was out of the shop for the season, and i get dragged back in. a couple of weeks back, my brother, his gf, and her parents were at a craft show, and were looking at this one seller's work, and asked how much. when she heard the price of $1600 :bonkers::thud: was her basic reply. the gf turned to my brother, and asked, can your brother make this? to this he replied :dunno:, i'll have to ask him. well, ask me he did, and i reminded him that the shop has been shut down for the winter for oh, say, the last couple of months. he sent me a pic of this modern art masterpiece, and it looked doable. he asked me how much, and i told him that i would be more than happy to knock $600 off the price. it seems that the gf's mom wanted it for over the mantle at their home. so, i went to check my inventory, maple, check, walnut, check, redheart, check, now it was off to one of my favorite lumber suppliers for the main part. upon finding out that it was zebra wood, and that it would cost about $100, my brother decided to look for an alternative. after a few false starts, he decided on a nice bit of cherry, good grain, and lots of figuring. so, as i thought, everything was good, right until he said that the dark parts had to be black, not just walnut. after a bit of a search of the internet, and consulting with rennie, and bill, decided to go with the better woodworking through chemistry route, and ebonize the walnut. with a donated ingredient (thanks rennie!), and a bubbling batch of iron acetate (fancy schmancy name for steel wool eaten by white vinegar). now, for the disclaimer, first and foremost, this is most definitely not one of my designs (not a modern art kind of guy), doing this only as a favor for my brother (as if keeping her mom supplied with custom made turtles (sugar free caramel, and non-chocolate chocolate) weren't enough), this will be the only copy made, and the only materials used that are the same, are the maple parts. though i will think that my version looks better, that is only my opinion (and maybe i will get some real custom made turtles in the bargain). now, on to the construction....


the fun part was trying to figure out where i was going to get the good spot for the triangle from this large cherry board. after finding the sweet spot of balance between straight/wavy grain at the top, and wilder grain towards the bottom, it was marked off, and cut. then it was on to recutting the thickness of the reheart, and planing it down to the finished thickness. then it was on to the maple, cutting a part that was slightly over the finished length, and then cut to the 3/8" x 3/8" thickness. then it was on to planing the walnut part smooth, and cut to length of the longest part, and ripped to the 3/8" x 3/8" thickness. with that out of the way, marked and cut the 4 3/4" circle of red heart, and sanded the edges to the line. that was when the light rain started, and the temp dropped from the upper 50's to the mid-40's. so, i called it a day. more to come tomorrow...
 

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i used strong tea once before jim, not to ebonize, but to stain some pine that i was using to make boxes for storing stuff at rendezvous. today i cut all of the short bits to length, and sanded them. sanded both sides of the red heart disk. after that, i cut the cherry triangle, and ran the edges on the jointer to straighten out any small weaving, then on the spindle sander to get rid of any chatter, and sanded the edges smooth to get rid of anything left. then i did a quick set up to see how it would look. after i get back from window shopping with the wife :blah:, i'll be straining out the iron acetate, mixing up the tanin tea, and give the ebonizing process a whirl (remembering to wear good, tough gloves).
 

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got the ebonizing done tonight. started out by filtering the iron acetate twice, and then brushing it on the walnut parts. gave them a minute or two, then patted off the excess liquid, as i've heard tell that if there is a high iron content, it could go rusty. after a bit, they went from black, to a darkish gray. it was then i went for the tannic acid. didn't have any dna on hand, so i went with the warm water, per the instructions. when i brushed it on, they went black, and stayed that way.
 

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today i found a space big enough to start gluing this project up. found my slight notches in the edge corner of the cherry triangle, then glued on the maple, and ebonized walnut parts. now it is just a matter of locating the just right bit of redheart for the disk. as to the finishing, i'm thinking about taping around the ebonized parts, and giving them a coat of shellac to seal them, then remove the tape, and add the boiled linseed oil on the rest of the parts, and around the ebonized parts, then hit everything with a couple of coats of shellac. still have to grab a couple of eye screws for hanging, before adding the horizontal ebonized part.
 

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Last edited:
i'm going to stick with the original for that part. my brother thought it was painted, i guessed oil on redheart. after checking, turns out that i was right, redheart with a tung oil/watco danish oil finish. we tried going down that route with the original redheart disk, and it came out too pink.
 
I keep looking at those parts you have spread out and wondering if you made an error in your initial post. $1,600? really? Not seeing it. Maybe when it's all done? :huh:
 
yup, $1600, really. its art rennie. i just figured a way not to use eye screws. since another picture of a similar item does not show them, i thought, how would i hang this? then, it hit me, d-hooks in back, wire between them, and rubber bumpers on the bottom edge to even up the space behind. that way, no eyes or wire will be seen.
 
...redheart with a tung oil/watco danish oil finish. we tried going down that route with the original redheart disk, and it came out too pink.

Maybe try over-coating with a darker oil - like Watco medium walnut? Might darken the red and eliminate the pink. A tiny bit of green added to the oil might have done it, too.
 
with the redheart on the way, and rethought about how to hang this thing, did up the taping of the cherry part, prior to putting the shellac on the black parts. didn't want to get any stray shellac on areas that are going to be oiled.
 

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yay! we do live in the time of miracles! the post office estimated the redheart blank would show up on monday, well kids, it showed up today! after spending most of the day running errands with the wife :blah:, got myself over to the shop, and got work on disk number two underway. much redder than what i had, and a much odder grain to it too. lopped a slab off the blank, and planed it. marked where the circle was to be cut from, and did the cutting. sanded it to the line, and down to 220 grit on the flat sides, with a rub on the outer edge. brought it home, and glued it to the cherry triangle. once the glue sets up, i'll be able to glue the long black part onto the back, and then i can start the finishing.
 

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hit it with the blo last night, and clear shellac today. tomorrow, wax, and hanging hardware.
 

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finished it up today! added the hanging hardware, and bumpers, and hit the front with pledge to make it nice and shiny.
 

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