heppnerguy Posted August 14, 2018 Report Share Posted August 14, 2018 I bought some laminated wood to make the Alex Fox 3 D pattern that I did a couple of weeks ago and had some left over and thought I would use it to experiment on a couple of patterns. Well, I did discover some rather interesting results that I am passing on, with the reason I did not like it for the items I made here. First of all I had a chip in the laminate that makes me not want to use this product for anything again. Secondly I lost of lot of what could have been some appeal for the outside of these items. Thirdly it helped me to understand something I have been overlooking on the baskets I have been making, and that is BB Birch is not a good source for basket because is only leaves a dull outside appearance. I somehow did not see that until now, partly because of the lessor price of BB Birch over solid woods and I am cheap. On the other hand, using BB Birch for plaques is perfect. That being said, I am going to download the three baskets that I experimented with. The first two are Steve Good patterns and were extremely easy pieces to cut. I did not find them to be very useful, individually so I combined them and made what I considered a more useful basket and also one that has more eye appeal with the two colors. None of the baskets in the photos below are glued together but only stacked. so the last one is where I alternated the two baskets and gave it, what I considered to be more of a useful and more of a decorated basket as well, but because of the product used, it has no eye appeal on the outside part of the baskets. I hope this might help others that may be not seeing the lack of luster using BB Birch for the wrong applications, like I have been doing for years. On the other hand, If one is using BB Birch and leaving it in it's natural color then in my opinion, it looks fine, like in the last example Dick heppnerguy frankorona, jollyred, John B and 4 others 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DWSUDEKUM Posted August 14, 2018 Report Share Posted August 14, 2018 Nicely done Dick. Those came out great and are very beautiful. Thank you for sharing them with us. DW heppnerguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPscroller Posted August 15, 2018 Report Share Posted August 15, 2018 Thanks for the tips Dick, was thinking of purchasing some mdf to do Alex's Love pattern, but am re-thinking it now. The two colors combined is striking in the third pic. Nice job on all. Jeff heppnerguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveww1 Posted August 15, 2018 Report Share Posted August 15, 2018 very nice work heppnerguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobscroll Posted August 15, 2018 Report Share Posted August 15, 2018 Good work there Dick and thank you for the tips, Bob heppnerguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrappile Posted August 15, 2018 Report Share Posted August 15, 2018 Nice work, Dick. I like the two colors one, but it makes my head spin a little. Looks like for a second the dark is dominate then something switches and the light color take over. But I do like them with more than one color. I did one of Alex's bowls with a hard wood and it worked fine and I think looked nice. I tried another one that had more "loop de loops" in it, with the same type wood and it broke apart. Because the gain running all in one direction it was just two fragile in narrow places that ran with the grain. Hence the advantage of the BB plywood. I don't know if any of this makes sense, but I know what I am trying to say.... amazingkevin, heppnerguy and Old Joe 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjR Posted August 15, 2018 Report Share Posted August 15, 2018 You always have nice work and good advice too. I avoid mdf and even try not to use much plywood. heppnerguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heppnerguy Posted August 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2018 14 hours ago, GPscroller said: Thanks for the tips Dick, was thinking of purchasing some mdf to do Alex's Love pattern, but am re-thinking it now. The two colors combined is striking in the third pic. Nice job on all. Jeff I know that I will stay away from mdf. For the Alex Fox 3D patterns it works fairly well as you really do not see the edges that much and the color stands out well but for baskets, I am totally against using it. I think, now that I have tried it, I will start to focus on natural wood. Too bad thin wood is so expensive and the shipping kills me. I also read several times where MDF is really bad for the lungs because it has formaldehyde or something like that in it. Thanks for the comment Jeff, I like to pass this kind of thing along for others to see and consider. Dick heppnerguy GPscroller 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heppnerguy Posted August 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2018 2 hours ago, Scrappile said: Nice work, Dick. I like the two colors one, but it makes my head spin a little. Looks like for a second the dark is dominate then something switches and the light color take over. But I do like them with more than one color. I did one of Alex's bowls with a hard wood and it worked fine and I think looked nice. I tried another one that had more "loop de loops" in it, with the same type wood and it broke apart. Because the gain running all in one direction it was just two fragile in narrow places that ran with the grain. Hence the advantage of the BB plywood. I don't know if any of this makes sense, but I know what I am trying to say.... Paul, I guess that is where choosing the right hard wood when doing these baskets is important. Some wood has grains that can break apart easily while others do not. I need to learn more about wood, myself but then I always have your experience to help guide me when necessary. That is one small reason I cherish our friendship as we can pass on to one another our knowledge. Fortunately for me, your knowledge of wood working far surpasses mine Dick heppnerguy Scrappile 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrappile Posted August 15, 2018 Report Share Posted August 15, 2018 Ditto, Dick. And be sure and do not use the hardwood I did..... coarse I do not remember what it was... so as usual, I'm a big help!! heppnerguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amazingkevin Posted August 16, 2018 Report Share Posted August 16, 2018 Excellent modification! heppnerguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimErn Posted August 16, 2018 Report Share Posted August 16, 2018 Nice work I too like the two color one the best. I am curious though, you say you do not like the looks of it from the side when using BB, could you post pics that show the side? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newfie Posted August 16, 2018 Report Share Posted August 16, 2018 Those look great thanks for sharing heppnerguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heppnerguy Posted August 27, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2018 On 8/16/2018 at 3:03 AM, JimErn said: Nice work I too like the two color one the best. I am curious though, you say you do not like the looks of it from the side when using BB, could you post pics that show the side? As you can see, by using this kind of wood, the outside has no character. However is one used natural wood the outside would have the same eye appeal as the inside. that is just my take on it Dick heppnerguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spirithorse Posted August 27, 2018 Report Share Posted August 27, 2018 Nice experiment and nice cutting, Dick, I also like the two colored basket very much. As for the edge grain, that would probably take on an entirely different look if sprayed or dipped with some type of finish. Just a thought. God Bless! Spirithorse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brianr24 Posted August 27, 2018 Report Share Posted August 27, 2018 They look great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heppnerguy Posted August 28, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2018 On 8/26/2018 at 7:30 PM, spirithorse said: Nice experiment and nice cutting, Dick, I also like the two colored basket very much. As for the edge grain, that would probably take on an entirely different look if sprayed or dipped with some type of finish. Just a thought. God Bless! Spirithorse I never even glued it together, let alone apply any finish to it. It was way too disappointing to waste my time Dick heppnerguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Joe Posted August 29, 2018 Report Share Posted August 29, 2018 On 8/26/2018 at 9:26 PM, heppnerguy said: As you can see, by using this kind of wood, the outside has no character. However is one used natural wood the outside would have the same eye appeal as the inside. that is just my take on it Dick heppnerguy On 8/28/2018 at 1:27 PM, heppnerguy said: I never even glued it together, let alone apply any finish to it. It was way too disappointing to waste my time Dick heppnerguy Curious, as it's hard to tell from your picture, but are you using Russian B/BB Baltic Birch? I always use B/BB and I'm reasonably happy with the outside of my baskets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heppnerguy Posted August 30, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 7 hours ago, Old Joe said: Curious, as it's hard to tell from your picture, but are you using Russian B/BB Baltic Birch? I always use B/BB and I'm reasonably happy with the outside of my baskets. It is actually a white finish and dark finished MDF board to so I could get the two colored bowl effect I was after. My problem is that when I am using a multi colored effect on the bowl, I think it would be a lot nicer looking if those colors continues on the outside of my bowl as well. Using MDF that is only finished on the top of the board, means I am unable to enjoy that same effect carried on to the outside of the bowl. This would also be the same with BB Birch as well or even a ply with any other finish on the surface of it, because as you cut the piece, you still only get whatever the middle ply content is. I hope that makes sense to you. If I was cutting a bowl from BB Ply and not trying to change the color of the wood on the inside of the bowl, then I too would be happy with the results, as you are explaining to me in your question Dick heppnerguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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