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Pattern by Larry Hamm. I think its in the pattern library here. I have not seen his name here for as long as I can remember (not that that means anything) Anyone have any info on Larry? Still a member here?

Today's post is a pattern that I have had for quite some time and I fell in love with it when I first saw it. This cute little project's pattern was made by Sam Custodio and had me hooked from the get go. It seems that I forget about it way too often and a couple of days ago I spotted it and had nothing pressing in my 'to do list' so I printed the pattern and took it to my shop. I only had about a half dozen small cuts left to have it all cut out, so I jumped on it this morning and finished it. I decided a quick and easy frame would be better than the over lapping backer board that I often do, so I found a piece of scrap wood that I thought might do the trick and made a glue on frame and used a piece of black poster board and threw on a coat of spray finish and it is ready to hang on my shop wall. I cut it from 1/4 lnch BB Ply and used a #3 Pegas MGT blade. Dick heppnerguy

Me and my best friend milled the tree this board came from back in 1998

The better half asked me to cut this for her. I'm more comfortable cutting trying to cut something like this on the hawk as it's more forgiving, but I thought I'd give it a go on the more aggressive Delta. Just to make it more difficult I decided to use the more aggressive MGT blades too (normally I use a less aggressive blade on the Delta) Well I must admit I struggled with this Steve Good pattern but I did manage to get it cut even though it took me a while. Fresh off the saw

Commissioned for the birthday of a friend who has taught at the same university for 40+ years. It is the formal logo of the university and is only the fourth I have cut. This one is approximately 7.5 x 9 inches of 3/4" cherry from Ocooch. Base is two pieces of 3/4" buckeye from another project. Cut this with Pegas #3MGT blades and finished with satin lacquer. As a bonus, I glued the final blade to the bottom of the base.

I've added the picture sorry

Well done Dick. Very cute. I like the frame and backer ideas.

That is so cute. Well cut Dick. Marg

Adorable piece, Dick. I can see why you fell for this when you saw the pattern.

That is so cute!

Looks very well done you should be very pleased.

Good topic, I myself do finish "all" of the project the same.. I know the piece isn't seen by only the person that hangs it on the wall.. but to me it just doesn't make the piece seem cheapened up. Also if it is solid timber rather than ply, the wood will still breath and if only the front side is finished ( sealed ) the back side can and probably will breath so there is still a possibility of the piece warping / cupping... I'm not sure if it's overkill or not.. that's just my thinking process and what I do..

Very nice job.

No picture

terrific job

Bob took that thought right from me, LOL.. Typically a home hobbyist or very small business that cares about the reputation of the small business will make a higher quality product than a commercial company that is more worried about cost and time. A commercial company's bottom line is always about the money. A small owner operator business should be worried about quality and customer satisfaction.. and yes cost has to come into play as well but we should also not be trying to compete with mass produced items and their mass produced cost. This is why Handmade / Homemade typically can be priced higher than those China mass produced items.

Thank you!! This is great info to consider. I know I personally don't buy rough cut lumber.. IF I'm buying it I'm going to get lumber that's ready to use with the exception of if I need stuff that is less than 3/4" because I don't use a lot of solid wood that is smaller than 3/4.. so if I need smaller then I resaw and mill it to the size I need. That would be a lot of hassle for me to size up all the lumber in order to sell it online.. and what you said is exactly what I had thought.. I feel I'd have to mill it to size or sell it for almost nothing. Probably a whole lot quicker and way less hassle to sell the whole rough cut load locally to one person is what I'm thinking. I doubt I'd sell the stuff I don't have room for very fast anyway. I'm busy enough selling the craft items.. This wood might be easier to sell if I was interested in being a wood dealer or something.

I don't have a lumber dealer near me for hardwoods. A couple of years ago, I did a lot of research into having lumber shipped to me. One of the companies I spoke with pointed out that S2S boards were cheaper shipped to me because the surfacing process removed a considerable weight. This would allow more wood to fit in the maximum size package they could ship without shipping as freight. Another thing I discovered was that while most of the companies used board feet for their measurement, some of them used the finished size of the wood. If Ocooch Hardwoods, for example, says it is 8 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick, that is what you get. Each time I purchase wood, I price it out, considering the total cost per foot to get it to my door. So far, the S4S boards from my local big box store have been cheaper. Not by much, but still cheaper. In rough lumber, at least 25% is waste, while there is zero waste in the poplar boards for my local big box stores. The whole board is 100% usable.

I have purchased from Ocooch and quality was excellent. One problem I did encounter was humidity difference between where it is milled and my location was different so as is acclimatized to my environment in sometimes cured slightly, but seldom enough that it was not usable.

Another job Very Well done!!!

Beautiful wood, and cutting.

Couple of gnomes I just finished gluing up. The wood is Hickory. Used a #5 FD ultra reverse blade.

I have purchased hardwood samples - they came in a box and were less than 3 ft long. I have however, purchased plywood online and it came on a truck with a lift and forklift to remove. Just before I found my local mill, I looked into purchasing lumber online from mills. The price was reasonable as long as I was willing to wait for a full load to go to shipment. They minimized shipping costs by loading a full flat bed so shipping was very reasonable - as I remember it was less than $50 for 160 board ft (12x16 boards planed) If I remember correctly these were mills around the Virginia area - it's been awhile and I no longer have the links - sorry

I own a Delta, So far I have had no complaints with it. Love your cutting. I can see with the Leaves that you would have some time in cutting them. I am sure your Wife Loved it.

They all look great. You should do good.

That came out great Dick. I like the frame to.

I've seen a fair amount of antique furniture that looks fantastic on the surfaces that you can see, but if you look underneath an antique chair or table, you will often see that, not only is it not finished, but it may not even be milled/smoothed to the same degree as the show sides. Of course, 200 years ago, there was a lot more manual work involved with planing and finishing wood, so doing it to surfaces that no one saw was viewed as a waste of time and resources. In modern times, with machinery doing most of the hard work involved with milling lumber, and finishes being applied with spray guns, it became much more common and often more practical to finish all surfaces. I don't know if the need to finish both sides of a piece of wood is myth or not. It sounds logical. If wood movement is a concern, I think it is probably prudent to at least seal the hidden side. One may not want or need to follow the exact same finishing schedule, especially if it involves steps like grain filling, staining/dyeing and multiple coats of a clear finish that need to be rubbed down after each application. I don't make stuff to sell, so my perspective may be a little more casual. Personally, if I'm making a piece that is intended to hang on a wall, I don't get too concerned about finishing the back to the same degree as the front. I might give it a quick coat or 2 of shellac, but I don't worry about it much. I don't want it to look like trash either, so I also take care not to leave a lot of glue squeeze out on the back or let stain and finish run down over the back. If I can't keep the stain from getting on the back, I'll go ahead and stain the whole thing.

Nice work, Colin. Is that two separate pieces or is it the same piece, one with the pattern on and the other with the pattern off?

Looks great, RJ

Exactly, This has always been my experience with the free rough cut lumber that I get.. No way I would take lower priced wood ( Oak, or poplar for instance ) free like I do with this Walnut.. reason being, the lumber at my local lumber yard is planned and ready to use.. I don't know how other sawmills are around the country but my local ones have a dirt / dusty driveway and also where the lumber gets placed while waiting on the trucks to come pick it up. The log trucks come barreling in and the trucks coming to pick up the lumber as well. They stir up big clouds of dust.. that dust lands all over the rough cut timber and since it's rough cut you can never get the dust and grit out of it.. I've washed it off with a garden hose and a stiff brush and it still tears through my planner knives. Normally I can go a full year on planner knives but if I plane this rough cut stuff I'm lucky to get 50 boards through it without significantly damaging the knives to the point the planner won't hardly work. When my knives are starting to get dull on regular lumber I try to run as many rough cut boards through just enough to get them half way smooth so when I do need to clean up a board nicely later on it's not ruining a good set of knives. Also most times the lumber is fresh cut and really can't be used for a couple years so there is work involved in stickering ( stacking with air gaps between layers so air drying happens evenly) so I take up storage space out of the weather for two years before I can use it. In this case of Walnut I got it had been sitting in the lumber yard for 1 year so I probably will be able to use it mid summer this year. Like I said, I doubt people would really want to "buy and pay shipping" cost etc for this lumber unless I was to plane it down etc.. and that wear on my equipment and my time fussing with it I just don't think it's worth the effort for what very marginal profit if any I would make. Lots of folks say I suck on my post about the free Walnut lumber but they don't realize I really only saved this wood from turning into wood chips or campfire / wood burner firewood.. It's too nice for that but not too nice a deal that everyone makes it out to be. I do like getting it fresh cut from the mill better IF I have storage area to sticker it and air dry for a couple years because if i get it fresh off the mill it hasn't had dust collection time sitting out in the yard... however getting it fresh off the mill I have to stand there all day and pick the pieces out from the conveyor belt that is headed to the wood chipper and sort it off those belts with all the stuff that is really junk. That is a job in itself too and time away from actually scroll sawing or whatever, so like you say.. free isn't always worth it.

Very clever, I love your fleet, I bet kids will love them as well! hope the market went well!

As always, wonderful work...I too love that piece of wood!

Awww, I can see why you loved this piece...so well done!

awesome job

Sometimes cheap isn't. I bought a stack of 1x2 pine boards for a 75% discount a few years ago, thinking I was getting a bargain. Once I cut out all the knots, pitch pockets, checks, and other defects, it turned out that I would have been better off if I had bought the premium pine boards. The only way this would have been a good deal was if I got the boards for free, and this is not counting the work involved.

Great looking work.

Awesome piece of wood turned into a piece of art. Marg

Great combination. That pattern with that walnut. Can't find wood like that around here.

Might be a silly question if you finish all pieces do you hope glue on finished services will hold.

beautiful wood very fitting for a beautiful picture.

for a long time I did not worry the back...but I ashamed of my self and started finishing the back.

Nice looking piece of wood and nice cut. I have been looking for a good wolf pattern to cut something for a neighbor. I've seen many patterns but none have been the one yet.

I've read before that all sides should be finished because of the reasons mentioned above,, but I have also read that that is a myth.

Happy to have you on board here. Welcome from Southern Arizona. Most scrollers stay away from the spiral blade as they find it difficult to use. How ever, It is like anything else, all it takes it practice and before long you should be quite comfortable with them. Be sure and ask any scroll saw question you may have and you will probably get a large number of replies from those so willing to share their knowledge and experience with you. Dick heppnerguy

I was so happy to have the backer board on hand. It was too narrow but I had enough length that I cut it in half and then was able to glue the two sides together, making it wide enough to make it work. Thanks for the nice comments. I do appreciate you taking your time to post them. Dick heppnerguy

How delightful.

Check out a place like Ocooch. to see their sizes,,,most I see are 24" or 36" lengths. also check USPS, UPS and FeDex and see what lengths are afforable to ship.

Boy you did a great job on that piece. Be proud.

I was a “Woodworker” before I was a “Scroller “. As a woodworker, you always finish all sides of a piece equally. As Kevin mentioned, to allow equal moisture absorption. The possibility of warping is there. It may not happen, but why chance it? And, it does cheapen the look as it is almost impossible to not get finish on the back side, or even the bottom of the piece.

Nope. It did take a couple of weeks. Saw was down for about a week before I went out and got a new one. Also had a few other things that are needing to get done.