Box with live edge

[steve_g]

Here's something I made yesterday... When I was adding some wood to my "kiln" (the attic of my storage building) I noticed that a good size batch of Osage Orange (Boise d' Ark for Texans) had been drying more than long enough... I was looking for a project to try my new Onsrud 1/2" rougher/finisher on ... Wow! I hogged out the material from the inside of this box without any splintering and almost no sanding. I'm pleased with both the box and the bit purchased on eBay for a fraction of it's value.

Steve

[mtylerfl]

I love that box, Steve! Beautiful! What's the part # of that Onsrud bit you used?

[paul_z]

Awesome!

Paul Z

[steve_g]

The bit is V-MAX69-084, a part # I didn't find in their catalog... when asked Fred at http://stores.ebay.com/LMT-Onsrud-Router-Bits-and-Blades said "This tool is very similar to our 60-300 series tool so you could use the same chip loads."

CED Chipload

3/8 .024 - .026
½ .026 - .028
5/8 .028 - .030
¾ .030 - .032

Did I say I'm very pleased!!!

Steve

[myxpykalix]

Steve what will you do to keep the bark from chipping off?

[joe]

I'm pleased to see someone shares my appreciation for Osage Orange, Horse Apple.

It's such a hard wood I've made several chisel handles from it. How large is your box and how much would you sell it for.

Joe Crumley

[Ajcoholic]

The bit is V-MAX69-084, a part # I didn't find in their catalog... when asked Fred at http://stores.ebay.com/LMT-Onsrud-Router-Bits-and-Blades said "This tool is very similar to our 60-300 series tool so you could use the same chip loads."

CED Chipload

3/8 .024 - .026
½ .026 - .028
5/8 .028 - .030
¾ .030 - .032

Did I say I'm very pleased!!!

Steve

I got a few of those too, from Fred. Very nice!

I love woodworking stuff with the live edges. I havent done much myself, as all we have up here is black spruce, and pine trees, and poplar and some birch. But nothing grows big enough to make anything other than construction lumber from.

Very nice project!

AJC

[steve_g]

I get a lot of my lumber salvaging storm damaged trees from the urban forests of Dallas county... The wood is usually cut into manageable size and put on the curb for the city to haul off, consequently I'm generally limited to pieces 2' or shorter in length. I band saw them into 1" and 2" slabs and put them in attic storage for at least 1year per inch of thickness. Sometimes the bark stays on ...often it doesn't. The Osage orange was felled in a winter storm, generally my finds are after spring storms, I don't know if that makes a difference but after nearly three years the bark is still tight. Before I determined the final size of this box, I rapped the bark vigorously with my hands and knocked some off, I also saturated the finished box bark in lacquer and even forced some Epoxy into an area I felt unsure of. I hope my efforts are enough and would like to hear if others have ideas on preserving the live edge intact! Woods generally available in my forest are: Oaks I avoid the Live oak species as any amount of curing is inadequate for the internal stresses it develops, Osage orange, Mesquite, some non native maples and untold verities of ornamentals. I can have any amount of ornamental Pear as it was a favorite 20-25 years ago and many of them are reaching end of life. What's it worth? I don't know... I had planed to offer it in a friends home decor store for $50.00. any thoughts?

Steve

[myxpykalix]

Regarding osage orange, i have found that a lot of woodturners like to tun it for bowls and such. When i used to go to the meetings we would have a silent auction and i could buy chunks for a buck or two.
Maybe i need to go back to the meeting and pick up some pieces.

[dmidkiff]

Steve, I read somewhere that the bark will stay on if harvested in the winter. I think it was a wood turner forum as I was inspired by some live edge bowls and doing research.

[steve_g]

Dave

Your recollection jogged a memory back to the surface, and I dug out an old book to confirm it... Hickory furniture raw materials are harvested in the winter for that exact purpose! Now... winter in Texas may not qualify, but Maybe it does!

Steve

[feinddj]

Trees harvested in winter have a lower moisture content due to the tree's growth cycle. I do a fair amount of turning. The way most turners keep a natural edge on if it is iffy is our old pal, superglue. You can prevent the super glue from staining the wood by applying a sanding sealer first and then the glue.

David

[joe]

Ok Steve. I'll pay the $50. since it's you.

But you have to sign it on the bottom to "Joe Crumley"

I've harvested some OO and it can be a challenge. These trees have a bizillion sharp thrones. They will easily go through leather. The fresh wood is a brilliant yellow green and dries a beautiful deep red brown. It will buff to a gloss without any surface treatment.

Joe

[steve_g]

"Ok Steve. I'll pay the $50"


Joe I'm honored that you like something I've made... After I take off the 100% commission the store marks up my product and subtract the friend discount, I may owe you some money...Actually, I'm making several more early this week and was going to give you the pick of the litter! Now don't get to feeling special or anything I'm doing this for everyone who has a folder on my desktop named after them...

I'll post images later and we'll all place bets as to which one you choose!

Steve

[joe]

Thank you very much. I'm excited about getting a piece of your fine work. I'm very fond of live edges on furniture. I'll send a photo of my table top with some of that on it.

I know there will be some mailing costs. Give me a total and I'll send a check.

Joe Crumley

[genek]

Nice work.... For every ones info.. Trees that are harvested in the winter time when the sap is in the roots and is not moving up the tree. The bark will stay on...i harvest sasafrass and hickory in the winter to make sure the bark stays on....if the trees lose their leaves in your area. Then this may follow to be true there. It is the sugars that are going back and forth in the bark that causes it to slip off of the wood. But when the sap is down the bark is tight and bonds to the wood.
Osage orange or know as hedge apple in my area.. Is extremely hard due to high silicone content.
Osage, will dull tools real quick... I have seen sparks fly off of my saw blades, and i have seen it remove the teeth off of my new band saw blade.
Osage was used as fences and was exported to most cattle area's...
If you really want a lot of thorns go hit the base of the tree a couple of times with an ax and watch what happens next year... Lol...

[pappybaynes]

I grew up on a dairy farm in south Jersey...we had a pasture that had two sides of it bordered with Osage Orange trees ...no fencing was needed on those two sides - the needles were 3-5 inches long and would easily go through the tire of a lawn tractor - the wood itself has one of the highest, if not the highest BTU ratings as firewood - we use to through the sticky fruit at each other...


Nice work.... For every ones info.. Trees that are harvested in the winter time when the sap is in the roots and is not moving up the tree. The bark will stay on...i harvest sasafrass and hickory in the winter to make sure the bark stays on....if the trees lose their leaves in your area. Then this may follow to be true there. It is the sugars that are going back and forth in the bark that causes it to slip off of the wood. But when the sap is down the bark is tight and bonds to the wood.
Osage orange or know as hedge apple in my area.. Is extremely hard due to high silicone content.
Osage, will dull tools real quick... I have seen sparks fly off of my saw blades, and i have seen it remove the teeth off of my new band saw blade.
Osage was used as fences and was exported to most cattle area's...
If you really want a lot of thorns go hit the base of the tree a couple of times with an ax and watch what happens next year... Lol...

[jerry_stanek]

It sure does a number on chain saw chains.

[steve_g]

I was introduced to the Osage Orange tree when we moved to Texas 40 years ago. As a young father I couldn't imagine a nastier tree... we had to protect our children from the one in our backyard!

Texans call it " Bodark" which is the French "Bois D' Arc" all run together. I was told as gospel truth that "Noah's" arc was built of it... Later I found out that the "Arc" part was referring to the shape of a Bow (for shooting arrows). The following is a little blurb I include with crafts made from it.

Osage-orange, (Maclura pomifera)

Osage-orange occurs naturally in the Red River drainage of Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, the area historically occupied by the Osage Indians. Texans don’t know the tree by this name, but call it Horse-apple, Bois D'Arc, or Bodark. Okies laugh when Texans call it “Horse-apple” because to them, horse apples are what’s left when the parade is over! Bodark is a corruption of the French Bois D’ Arc or bow wood. Most Osage timber is knotty and twisted, but when straight-grained makes very good bows. In early 19th century Arkansas, a good Osage bow was worth a horse and a blanket. The fruit, found only on the female tree, is roughly spherical but bumpy and uneatable.

Before the introduction of barbed wire the sharp-thorned trees were planted as cattle-deterring hedges, and afterward became an important source of fence posts. It was one of the primary trees used in President Roosevelt's "Great Plains Shelterbelt" WPA project, which was launched in 1934. This resulted in 220 million trees being planted throughout the great plains states. The saplings were aggressively pruned to promote bushy growth that was "Horse high, bull strong and hog tight."

The heavy, close-grained yellow-orange wood is very strong , dense and stable it takes a high polish and is prized by craftsmen. However, other than for use as fence posts, it is considered exotic lumber and has little commercial lumber value.

[joe]

Well Huray.

Now I don't feel so alone. I've been hording pieces of this tree for years. I can identify it during the winter by it's lacy bark. As it hardens up, you can see sparks flying when a chainsaw hits it.

I'd be afraid to make a sign out of it. No telling what would happen. It would last though but who knows about cracks and splits.. No question about that. Horse apple fence post last a lifetime.

Joe Crumley

[jhedlund58]

We call it hedge apple where i live... big softball size seed pods... use them for eliminating crickets in garage and bugs around house... mostly we toss em up and let kids hit with baseball bat

[steve_g]

Here's the group of live edge Osage Orange boxes I've been working on... I'm giving Joe Crumley the "pick of the litter". He had expressed admiration for the first one I made, even offering to pay for it. Giving one to Joe is the least I can do to express gratitude for all I've gleaned from him over the years... So, Thank you Joe And make your choice!

I've included a link to a PDF that thoroughly discusses the process of making live edge boxes... I can only hope that it helps someone else in the same spirit that Joe has freely and generously helped others!

Steve Glassel

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8GtiBWUjRyRNzlwd0FPV29yODg
For most reliable viewing... download the document to your own computer.

[myxpykalix]

So steve if I tell you how nice your boxes are will i get one too?:D
Just kidding...they are nice though.

What it did give me the idea to do is go back to our woodturners meetings that i haven't been to in a few years because guys bring in extra wood they have for a silent auction and you can usually pick up nice size chunks of all different types of wood for 2-3 dollars and i recall guys bringing in alot of osage orange. I think i remember them telling me that it was a real hard wood to turn and it dulled their tools.
Keep making those nice boxes!:)

I just checked and we have a meeting tonite so i might bring back some stuff!

[ssflyer]

Steve,Absolutely gorgeous boxes and an excellent write-up! Thanks for your time and sharing!

[joe]

Steve,

It's difficult to choose.

I'll take #3 if you'll sign the bottom and date.

Please send me a PM with your address and I'll send a check.

Joe

[myxpykalix]

I have some various woods that i got from my sawmill buddy which were one of the first cuts on the bandsaw that some tend to have a "live edge" of bark on one edge or the other and for practical purposes he can't use because they need to be dimensional pieces so he gives them to me. I usually cut that edge off and use the smaller pieces for something but seeing Steve's use of them makes you think differently about it.

Speaking about a live edge we have a nutcracker bowl around here somewhere that is a full round log hollowed out (2 or 3" tall) that all the bark stayed on and i know it is at least 75 or 100 years old, so i'm sure his boxes will still look the same 100 years from now, too bad no one reading this will be around to confirm this fact!:eek:

[steve_g]

I finally got them all shipped today... Between family and friends they were all claimed! I had an issue with the finish that slowed me down... Typically I put Bees wax as my final finish on my boxes. This time the bees wax never hardened, leaving me with a sticky, greasy finish. Not sure what I did different. Several days in the sun finally made it where I could buff them up to a nice warm glow.

SG

[khaos]

I finally got them all shipped today... Between family and friends they were all claimed! I had an issue with the finish that slowed me down... Typically I put Bees wax as my final finish on my boxes. This time the bees wax never hardened, leaving me with a sticky, greasy finish. Not sure what I did different. Several days in the sun finally made it where I could buff them up to a nice warm glow.

SG

The Bees must have unionized ....

[myxpykalix]

Forgive my not remembering, but when i used to carve bowls on the lathe we had a 3 buffing wheel setup with "white diamond" and 2 other sticks you applied to the wheel then buffed your bowl with.
I wonder if any of you turners would think you could use the same thing to finish your boxes or carvings with something like that? That might be an alternative for you steve:confused:

[steve_g]

White diamond is a Metal polish containing wax and Rouge. Often wood turners use products like Carnauba wax or shellac and oil for finishes that would require LOTS of work were it not for the lathe spinning the project...

SG

[myxpykalix]

yes you applied the wax that came in a stick form to the spinning buffing wheel then put your project to the wheel. I think you could do the same with a box?

[myxpykalix]

Steve,
I woke up today and went out to get the mail and to my surprise I saw a package there and thought "oh man it's christmas!". I opened it up like a kid on christmas day going thru layer after layer of wrapping paper to get to the plastic covering where i saw my "present".

Now some people might say, "It's just a piece of wood!"....well people don't see what us woodworkers see. When you hold it up on it's side what I see is a collaboration between Mother Nature and the Artist. You can see a "slice" of the tree displaying at least 100 years of growth rings, the sap wood and finally a section of the bark. That was Mother Natures contribution to the project.
Then the Artist took over with technology and just plain old woodworking skills turned what She has created into a work of art! After cutting out the insides to form the cavities of the box the finishing was done to carefully preserve the bark to the box giving it a beautiful sheen.

One thing I really like is the sound it makes....sound? A piece of wood does not make any sounds! Ahhh but you are wrong! The sound it makes when you open the lid about an inch and drop it and the two pieces meet is a sound of the wood telling you it approves of it's new life where it will live on for another hundred years as the heirloom for future generations to hold and wonder about the craftsman who made this!
I appreciate that the artist signed his work however my plan was to show it to family members and tell them that I made it:D, but that was not to be....So to some it might just be a "piece of wood" to me it is a "work of art"....:)
Thanks Steve

[joe]

Steve,

My box came today and it's beautiful. I'll take a photo with it on my Live Edge table. It's such an attractive box I've decided it would be good for storing my gold leaf packets and 23K roll gold. I may also include a few packets of Mica.

Thanks again.

Joe Crumley

[steve_g]

The last one is finally home... It was for my mom. My 86 year old mother has been collecting and using my projects since I was in grade school. From trivets, tables and chairs to wings added on the house, she is as excited about the last one as she was the first. No wonder I enjoy making things with a fan club like that!

SG