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Okay, I almost wasn't going to post this since it is just a scrolled heart, nothing fancy but tricky inlaying it in there. I did inlay a few on cutting boards (with the help of you folks) and now I tried it on a box. Nothing fantastic like all the wonderful scroll work that everyone puts on here, but its a start for me. This is now my second box I have ever made. I kind of like boxes. But hope to move on to other scrolling adventures and move from hearts . The wood is Spalted Hackberry and walnut. I had a challenge with the mortise lock but it does work and actually I need help putting hinges on and keeping them level for the next time I make another box...they are a bit wonky but at least they do work.

The piece is titled First Fathers. It depicts Mount Rushmore with the following Indian chiefs in front. Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Geronimo and Chief Red Cloud. I cut it from 1/8” Baltic Birch plywood (440 cuts). It was finished with Danish oil. It is backed with black foam board and framed behind glass with a frame set I purchased.

Howdy folks! I'm Tj and I live in Fort Smith Arkansas. I've been scrolling for 38 years and doing intarsia for the last 16. I'm pretty much self-taught on the fretwork and I learned to do intarsia from Judy Gale Roberts.

This is a Sue May design that I used to color fill. Made from cherry.

Yeah, my nose is getting sore from you rubbing it! Why don't you mill some of it, cut it into small sizes and send it all your Village friends?

Howdy, my name is Tj and I live in Fort Smith Arkansas. I've been scrolling for 38 years now and have used Excalibur's for the last 26 years. I do fretwork, intarsia, 1911 grips and color filled fretwork.

For those that don’t know my brother owns a lumber mill. They had the lumber grade people there sorting lumber and this lumber didn’t meet the requirements so either I was to come get it or it was going into the wood burner. I still haven’t used the full two truck loads of walnut he gave me last fall. And while there he reminded me I am supposed to go to another mill that has 200bdf of 4ft pieces that he gave me last month that they needed to move out of the storage area so I guess I should have plenty of walnut lumber for a couple years probably, While there he tried to get me to take a stack of spalted maple he has. He gave me 100 or so bdf about 10 years ago that I still haven’t used that I told him I was thinking about selling, burning or something because it doesn’t fit with my typical projects I make.

I think 1/4" is fine, of coarse, it is personal preference that counts. I have done detailed patterns in 1/4" basswood with no problem, and it is softer, I think, than Birch. You may find a #2/0 Pegas blade a little too flexible but again personal preference and what works for you is the real answer.

As many of you do, I receive daily Email from Steve Good with his Scroll Saw projects. Most of his projects are not my “cup of tea”. However, every now and then one of his projects will grab my interest. Earlier this week I downloaded his pattern for a solid wood Rose Vase which I decided to experiment with and make with a few modifications. The major modification was that I wanted both the front and back to have the rose image cutout and have solid backers that I could use to apply color to the image. I knew I did not have any significant quantity of a specific hardwood in stock that I could use to make it and did not want to purchase any right now. However, I did have a verity of cut offs of Maple and Walnut that were of the correct size that I decided to use. I was able to find six pieces, all of which were 1/4” thick, except one piece was only 3/16” thick. Also, the number of available pieces allowed me to make one face Walnut and the other face Maple, another modification to the design. Since this is a vase, the middle two pieces - the 3/16” and one 1/4” would be cut to form the internal cavity. First, I stack cut the full six layers to the rough outside configuration using a Pegas #5 skip tooth blade. Second, I stack cut the Rose Image in the front and back piece using Pegas #1 MGT R blades. Should have flipped the finished face of the back over so the image would face the same way but I didn’t. So, the Front and back face in opposites directions, but that was OK with me. Third, I stack cut the middle two layers to form the cavity, again using the Pegas #5 skip tooth blade. Here again I did not follow the pattern. I started the cut, following the pattern at the mouth of the vase, but simply cut a straight down rectangle from the inside of bulge near the top. This added significant rigidity and glue surface to the middle pieces. After adding my color with Artist Acrylics to the backers, the glue up was straight forward. First the middle two pieces, the two front pieces, and the two back pieces were individually glued together. Then I glued the three assembly’s together to form the completed vase. Although all the layers were originally stack cut, the final glued up stack was not perfectly lined up and a bit of sanding was needed with both my bench belt sander and my rotary oscillating sander to flush up and smooth all the perimeter sides. Finally, I eased all the sharp corners with sanding sponges and fine hand sanded all surfaces with 220 grit sponges and then 600 grit Wet/Dry Sandpaper. The finish is multiple coats of Clear Gloss Lacquer. This Rose Vase will be given to my Lady and occupy a place in our home. She already loves it!!!!!!! Hoping this lengthy dialog was not too boring. Comments and critiques always welcome.

You could stack cut two 1/4" pieces. That way you get the support of 1/2" when cutting but have two 1/4" pieces when done.

For Fret work I use 1/4 inch and a FD 3 or 5 ultra-reverse. This is just what works for me.

It isn't "just a scrolled heart". It is a beautiful piece of work.

I save all those refrigerator magnets that are given with adds for anything from Tax Help to Ac/Furnace repair. When I need more support, I simply grab one, cut to my blade slot and have an instant zero insert. They work quite well for me.

My mag sheet from Amazon. I was not sure it would stick magnetically, it did, but if not I was going to use double sided tape on the corners. Hole size is up to you

Very nice! I couldn't build a box to save my life.

Well, I was thinking that you need a trip to So Cal and if you come this way, in your truck, well you see where I'm going with this?

I see several people selling wood on Etsy. Maybe you should cut some in easy shipping sizes and sell some.

Oh you poor soul, how will you ever get over it Feel free to send some to me, I'll use it!

Some people always comes out smelling like a rose. Great score, Kevin!

I'm wanting to start a larger fretwork project, or large for me. Photo attached. I have a lot of Alaska birch on my property and it is the wood I do all my wood working with. Is this wood hard enough for fretwork when planed down to 1/8 inch? Or what thickness should it be? I'm guessing 1/2" would be too thick. I was wondering if anyone has used this wood before. Also, which blades and sizes do you suggest for all the teeny tiny bits. The smallest I have is the Pegas MG #2/0 and the Pegas Spiral #2/0 (just came in the mail and so excited to try them). I do have larger sizes in both. Any tips and advice is much appreciated! Pattern found on this site for those interested.

Just watched a video about the Axminster scroll saws and was just wondering if anyone had any knowledge or information about them? They looked a lot like the Pegas saw and even come with the Pegas blade chucks on them.

Welcome to the Village forum from Tennessee.

Gene, Well, I kind of figured I wanted the dovetails to be on both sides, so I took small scraps of walnut, cut them to the thickness of the Hackberry, made a dovetail like I always do (I can't remember what they are called, "half blind dovetails" maybe?") took that piece to the bandsaw and cut off most of what was left of the walnut (carefully), then took it to the chop saw and cut that at a 45 degrees, did it again until I did it 8 times for 4 pieces of Hackberry (2 on each side) than I glued it all together and by golly it worked! I tried it on 1/2 inch thickness the first time and I thought it too thin. This is just under 3/4" and it was less scary. hope that makes sense.

Beautiful!

awesome job

excellent work

Hi all My girlfriend asked me to make something for her mate she has not seen in ages I had 2 days to do it. here is the result

This is what I do as well.

Very very nice.

Very nice, Frank. And, thanks a lot for the procedural details.

Excellent!!! Could you please describe your interesting dovetail process. I mortice the top of the box for the hinges. Usually, deep enough for both leaves. That keeps them straight.

If I need zero clearance for my blade, I tape an index card to the table. It's not a permanent fix, but it works well for the few times I need it.

Frank, I love the painted leaves and roses...very pretty!

That looks great Frank. I have that pattern on my to do list. You just gave me some ideas. Jerry

Mark, I used colored resin.

It looks like the eagle shield is inlaid. What wood is the stripes? Me. Mark Eason

We all feel so sorry for all of your lumber problems. Perhaps things will turn around later this year, and your lumber situation will improve. LOL!

Why not buy some of that magnetic material that they make signs out of and just lay it over your existing table? You can poke a pin hole in it and have a tiny hole. Then if/when it gets worn out, replace it with a new one. Is your table steel? If so the magnetic stuff will still great and it's got to be far easier to replace than making a whole new table top. Just trace around it while it's attached to your table top and cut it out. Easy-peasy!

This is my latest cut, this beautiful pattern by Russ Beard, double stack 1/4” Imported Prime Ply, approximately 25 hours I don’t rush things just one hole at a time. Cut on my highly modified Wen using mainly #0 and #1 Straight Flying Dutchman My finishing process is as follows, fist sand with 220 grit damp wipe clean blow dry dry with compressor and allowed to dry, second San 400 grit same process. The I use a flat “biscuit” baking pan pour about 2ml of Danish Oil and gently from tha side lay it in the pan, I leave it fit about a minute and the lift the wood to see if it’s soaking in we’ll lay the wood down again and leave for a few minutes carefully watching the the sides, depending on the dryness of the wood you will see the absorption amount. When I’m satisfied that the wood is nicely sealed I lift the cut out and hang it through a big cut about 2” from the tray to drip dry for about a minute. I then place the cut on four empty canned food tins and using a soft cloth wipe off all excess oil, I leave it like this for 24 hours so it dries and seals completely. If I’m going to apply any colour it’s done now then it’s sprayed with varnish, two to three coats depending on what finish you require. Then it’s the framing process, I make all my own frames.

Cutting mistake BS,,he (your husband) need to come on and defend that!!

Welcome to the Village forum from Tennessee

I started to cut this pattern and because I was planning on it for a gift, decided to stack cut a couple of them so I could have one for my shop wall. Well, I made the decided to cut it with 1/8 inch Baltic Burch and use a spiral to cut the eye first with it and then go to my #1 Pegas blade. There was a slight Bow in the wood so I placed both bulges facing each other so as to try and avoid the chance of breakage. Well that was a mistake as just as i finished the eye, it broke out. I was thinking that I would just go back into the shop, increase the pattern size a little but only cut the head out instead of the entire animal as then I could use the remainder of the wood I was going to use instead starting completely over again. I told my wife what I was planning on doing and showed the progress to the cut as I went along. She thought I was doing an OK job, at that point. When I finally finished it and took it into the house and showed it to her, she replied, " I don't like it." "What?" was my reply and it was because I had not included the entire pattern in the cutting.How could she have not noticed that all the other times I showed her my progress on it? Now, I can't give it as a gift and it has become another of my closet art pieces, you know, the ones you are too embarrassed to show others. Well I know here in the village, people are always complimentary at other's work, even when it is inferior to what they might be making, so because my wife caused it to become closet art, I will be looking for at least one person here to say something a little nice about it and make all my cutting time, not so much of a complete waste of my time. It is OK to lie this one time. Dick heppnerguy

My son is a wildlife photographer. He has taken several pictures of moose and if I remember correctly some of these pictures have water dripping from their mouth. Must be just sloppy drinkers. My son, and me too, would be proud to hang this on his wall. What did your wife think was missing from the picture? I like it. I wish my wife were still here so I could share my work with her, she loved when I would show it to her. Now I just bug my neighbors. As you can tell I like it. Jerry

Looks great to me! My wife and I have a good relationship, 40 years, but if I want to feel good about something I’ve cut I don’t ask her what she thinks about it. Brutally honest, and if she attempts a fake approval, after 40 years it’s easy to spot. Obviously, I know she won’t be reading this.

I agree with Frank on the frame. A rustic one would work better. As for the water drips, if you have ever seen a Moose in the wild they eat the vegetation in the water and when they raise their head they drip water from their face/head. I would hang this on my wall. Nicely done!

I'm betting it was not your cutting but the subject she did not like. I agree with Marge, the drips off the snout take away a from the piece somewhat, but that is between you and the pattern maker. You have to be kind of a wild life enthuist to appreciate the image. To me, It definately does not belong in the closet, but the Frame, although very nice, is not appropriatee for the piece. I would make a very rustic, rough, distressed, wide frame out of maybe Pine, Cedar or maybe old pallet wood and then the whole piece would take on an entirely diferent and more apealing appearance...more suitable for maybe a cabin setting or hunters man cave. Not knowing "who" the piece was intended for, it is hard to say if you should gift it to that person. If he/she is a hunter or is found of northern wild life, I would say it could be definately gifted as planned. BTW, the cutting itself looks very well done.

Welcome to the Village from frozen (still) Minnesota! Bruce

Welcome from Ohio!

Welcome to the village from East TN.

Welcome from your neighbor in North Carolina, Larry. And welcome to a very addictive hobby. Please post pictures of you work and don't hesitate to ask questions. The knowledge from the members of the Village is unbelievable.