12 Ornaments, each using a different wood species

[Frank Pellow]

I discovered a new place to purchase wood this week. It’s called Woodchucker’s and it is very close to the East Toronto Lee Valley store that I have frequented for years. The store concentrates on what they term ‘Artistic’ uses of wood and, in particular wood used for turning and for scrolling. They stock various sizes of wood and place is well laid out and each board is marked on the end with its species, length, and price. I browsed for over an hour and came away with the six boards shown in the attached photo.

 

The species (from left to right in the photo) are Honey Locust, quarter sawn White Oak, Purple Heart, Padauk, Tiger Wood, and Pau-Ferro. To put things in perspective, the tallest and widest board is a little over a metre in length and about 20 centimetres wide. They vary in thickness from 3 to 50 millimetres. The total cost was exactly $100 which sounds like a lot but, used in small pieces in various scroll saw projects, the wood will go a long way and last me a long time.

Right away, I decided to take advantage of the wide variety of wood species that I now have on hand by making a set of 12 ornaments, each utilizing a different species. Rather than the obvious choice of on of the many ’12 Days of Christmas’ plans available, I chose a set of bells with cut-outs that Steve Good offers (for free). These plans have the advantage of retaining more of the wood than many of the other plans that I looked at. And, it is the wood that I want to feature.

Edited November 28, 2016 by Frank Pellow

[Frank Pellow]

(part 2 of 3)
 
Most of the cut-outs in Steve’s bells are secular but three of them are symbols of the Christian religion. Retaining the overall bell shape for all ornaments, I replaced the three cut-out symbols that have a Christian connotation with non-religious symbols found in other available patterns.

I decided to stack cut the ornaments two deep. In the two attached photos, one ornament has been cut and the rest await cutting:

The wood species are as follows:

• Red Oak, Tiger Wood, Cumaru, Jatoba, Douglas Fir, Cherry

• Purple Heart, Padauk, White Oak, Hard Maple, Pau-Ferro, Walnut

 

Notice that the wood is horizontal on all the pieces.

Edited November 29, 2016 by Frank Pellow

[Frank Pellow]

(part 3 of 3)
 
I cut, planed, and sanded most of the wood down to a 6mm thickness. The white oak was already 3mm thick when I purchased it. I used a combination of Olson 2/0 crown tooth, 5RG reverse tooth, and 9RG reverse tooth blades to cut out the ornaments and, with the exception of the Fir, everything went well. The Fir was the only soft wood in the group and it proved to be too weak at the spot where there is a protrusion at the top of the bell. This happened on both Fir ornaments. For now, I simply drilled a hole into a lower place in the bell, but I will probably replace the Fir with a different species.

After cutting, some filing, and sanding I sprayed the ornament with three coats of clear gloss urethane.

Attached is a photo of one set the completed ornaments:

They are:

• Purple Heart (snow man 1), Cherry (bell), Cumaru (dove), Jatoba (candle)

• Walnut (snowflakes), White Oak (tree), Fir (candy cane), Hard Maple (snowman 2)

• Zebra Wood (santa), Red Oak (reindeer), Pa-Ferro (stars), Padauk (present with ribbon)

I plan to keep one set of ornaments and hang the under our fireplace mantle. I will give the other set to someone who really appreciate the beauty of natural wood (probably my sister Christine).

Edited November 28, 2016 by Frank Pellow

[don in brooklin on]

Glad you found Woodchuckers.  Peter and Mark are really great guys.  Peter is very knowledgeble about woods and if you ever need anything he can find it or tell you where to get it.

 

I was there Saturday and got away with just $50 and the was a record low.  What I bought was a live edge piece of walnut for charcuterie boards that I will show later. 

 

Love the ornaments in real wood.

 

Don

Edited November 28, 2016 by don in brooklin on

[Scrolling Steve]

Frank, Those turned out great.....The wood is beautiful !

[DWSUDEKUM]

Nice to have a place close by with a great selection to work from.  Thanks for sharing this with us.

 

DW

[meflick]

Always great to find a good source for wood close by.  Really helps save on expense when you can pick it up.  The ornaments turned out great.  Thanks for sharing your photos and information.

[penquin]

What a beautiful selection of ornaments.  They all look super.

jim

penquin

[DukeNukem]

That is beautiful wood.

 

Jerry

[newfie]

Great work thanks for sharing

[GPscroller]

Those turned out great Frank!  Job well done.  Thanks for the pics.

 

Jeff

[Lucky2]

Way to go Frank, finding Woodchucker's is very fortunate for you. I've been dealing with them for years, granted all of my dealings with them is internet based.These ornaments all done up in different types of wood look great, will you be selling them, or, will they be gifts?

Len

[Dave Monk]

Great lookin wood. Nice job. dave

[amazingkevin]

I discovered a new place to purchase wood this week. It’s called Woodchucker’s and it is very close to the East Toronto Lee Valley store that I have frequented for years. The store concentrates on what they term ‘Artistic’ uses of wood and, in particular wood used for turning and for scrolling. They stock various sizes of wood and place is well laid out and each board is marked on the end with its species, length, and price. I browsed for over an hour and came away with the six boards shown in the attached photo.

 

The species (from left to right in the photo) are Honey Locust, quarter sawn White Oak, Purple Heart, Padauk, Tiger Wood, and Pau-Ferro. To put things in perspective, the tallest and widest board is a little over a metre in length and about 20 centimetres wide. They vary in thickness from 3 to 50 millimetres. The total cost was exactly $100 which sounds like a lot but, used in small pieces in various scroll saw projects, the wood will go a long way and last me a long time.

Right away, I decided to take advantage of the wide variety of wood species that I now have on hand by making a set of 12 ornaments, each utilizing a different species. Rather than the obvious choice of on of the many ’12 Days of Christmas’ plans available, I chose a set of bells with cut-outs that Steve Good offers (for free). These plans have the advantage of retaining more of the wood than many of the other plans that I looked at. And, it is the wood that I want to feature.

Nice of you to get some good wood to work with

 

(part 2 of 3)

 

Most of the cut-outs in Steve’s bells are secular but three of them are symbols of the Christian religion. Retaining the overall bell shape for all ornaments, I replaced the three cut-out symbols that have a Christian connotation with non-religious symbols found in other available patterns.

 

I decided to stack cut the ornaments two deep. In the two attached photos, one ornament has been cut and the rest await cutting:

 

The wood species are as follows:

• Red Oak, Tiger Wood, Cumaru, Jatoba, Douglas Fir, Cherry

• Purple Heart, Padauk, White Oak, Hard Maple, Pau-Ferro, Walnut

Notice that the wood is horizontal on all the pieces.

 

good you balanced out religious to non religious

(part 3 of 3)

 

I cut, planed, and sanded most of the wood down to a 6mm thickness. The white oak was already 3mm thick when I purchased it. I used a combination of Olson 2/0 crown tooth, 5RG reverse tooth, and 9RG reverse tooth blades to cut out the ornaments and, with the exception of the Fir, everything went well. The Fir was the only soft wood in the group and it proved to be too weak at the spot where there is a protrusion at the top of the bell. This happened on both Fir ornaments. For now, I simply drilled a hole into a lower place in the bell, but I will probably replace the Fir with a different species.

 

After cutting, some filing, and sanding I sprayed the ornament with three coats of clear gloss urethane.

 

Attached is a photo of one set the completed ornaments:

 

They are:

• Purple Heart (snow man 1), Cherry (bell), Cumaru (dove), Jatoba (candle)

• Walnut (snowflakes), White Oak (tree), Fir (candy cane), Hard Maple (snowman 2)

• Zebra Wood (santa), Red Oak (reindeer), Pa-Ferro (stars), Padauk (present with ribbon)

 

I plan to keep one set of ornaments and hang the under our fireplace mantle. I will give the other set to someone who really appreciate the beauty of natural wood (probably my sister Christine).

Christine will be over joyed i'm sure,Beautiful work here you did ,thanks for showing us!

[Ron Johnson]

Very beautiful ornaments and well done Frank.

[Frank Pellow]

Len (Lucky2), I'm keeping one set and giving the other away. 

 

The closest I ever come to selling my work is donating it to a charity auction.

Edited November 29, 2016 by Frank Pellow

[wombatie]

Lovely wood you got there Frank, great find.  I love your ornaments.  I will have to take another look at Steve's ornaments.  I love the bell with the zig zaggy Christmas tree that's my favorite but they are all great well done.

 

Marg

[daveww1]

beautiful job, the ornaments look great