What To Do With The Small Bits Of Wood...

Every woodworker struggles with saving or throwing out scraps of wood. Some say if it hasn't been used in a few months it's gone. Others (like me) hold on to even the smallest piece of wood if it has amazing character to it. I have boxes and boxes of bits of wood that are the size of a golf ball or even smaller. A few years ago I made some necklaces from some of it, but the boxes of bits continued to grow. I'm participating in Market Day next month on the 18th and I needed some smaller, lower priced items to go along with my bowls, vases, bottle stoppers, etc. What I came up with were earrings, necklaces, key chains, tops, buttons, fridge magnets and a few other items.

Below are a few pictures of some of them. Stop by my booth at Market Day inside of Gramcery Tap at 400 Walnut St. before or after you enjoy the Downtown Farmers Market on May 18th from 8am-1pm and you can see them for yourself!

Box Elder Slab Table

 Here is the finished product! Pretty labor intensive...It took hours of power sanding to get the chainsaw marks smooth. About 3 hours to get the bark off. More power sanding to get the sides smooth and then hours and hours of hand sanding to get the surfaces ready for oil.  Once the oil hit the wood I was pretty happy with the finish. There are red/pink streaks that are common with box elder and streak of flaming curl grain as well. The cracks with change over time and only add to the character of the table.

I'm glad to finally be done with this project, and I have lots of ideas (and wood) for similar projects coming up.

Preview - A Hunk of Box Elder

Almost a year ago, I found this BIG hunk of box elder in a pile at a park here in Des Moines. The shape caught my eye and I knew I could make something cool with it. But I didn't know what at the time....

A few weeks later I rediscovered these legs from an old wood stove that was once in my parents garage. Now I had a pretty good idea of what I could use the hunk of box elder for...and how to upcycle the legs.

Stay tuned, early next week I'll show you the finished project!