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Third Bite of Beech

Just watched "Love at First Bite" last night again, so those familiar will recognize the significance.

As you can see, the final item goes from spalt to sound, which means the next piece, even if it did not have loose bark and radial checks, would have been rather plain Jane. With only one end spalted, I elected to glue the bark on the spalted end and leave it on. Previous piece had over half the bark loose, which is why I took a knife and cleared the remainder.

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The bark had been breached on what I made the bottom of the piece, and I couldn't turn all of the radial checks away and leave wood below the heart, so I filled it with CA and dust. Not particularly appealing, so this piece may yet fulfill its destiny as firewood.
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Also noticeable in the photo is a circular tear in the dovetail area that I will have to sand off if I decide to keep the whole. Perils of cutting wet and letting dry.

Reply to
George
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This is just a thought.... nothing else.

I have found for my taste that if I know I will not match a finish or texture, I don't try. For the most part, I don't like the CA glue and sawdust, although on some things it looks OK. To me, a CA/sawdust fill always looks like a repair job.

For me, what I do with a crack like that is fill it with something that is contrasting or decorative. With that crack, I am sure that some epoxy with something to tint it would look great. While it is hard to tell the correct color balance on the net, a lot of different colors would look really nice in that one and compliment the piece.

Olive green would really warm that crack up. And a light brown would make it look almost natural.

You can easily grind that crack out and refill it. It is waaaay too nice to burn. I KNOW someone in your circle of people would be thrilled to have that. But if you do decide to burn it, tell me here and I will send you the postage and you can send it to me!

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

Hey George, Stop using excessive force on dovetails with your Nova jaws.

I'm kidding! I'm kidding! Forget Robert's offer. We don't have a fireplace or a mantle piece, but I'll buy a cord of that firewood and display it on a shelf proudly.

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

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Reply to
Arch

Anything but! If you look carefully at the recess, you can see that it spun and polished a couple times after being reversed. I had to resnug. It's sort of prone to that until you're cutting a continuous path. Of course, the checks were already filled, and a bit of water-thin CA reinforcing the still damp sapwood had been applied to keep things from coming apart.

Robert, as you look, the recess is slightly over an inch. making the entire piece no more than four-four and a half. I've done contrasting fills, but only when they were obvious. These were small and fairly well out of the way. What you say is what Susan keeps saying. Though I have great taste, evidence of which is marrying her, I don't have the only version of it. Almost any piece will appeal to someone. I could throw the business cards in it when I go to market, as I generally do with a little "who cares" project. Strangely, someone always appears to be ready to give me twenty bucks for it.

Reply to
George

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