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After the positive comments on my last post I now feel confident enough to post some earlier projects. Many thanks to Steve and his generosity.

I have a few hundred dollars worth of I guess you could call it exotic wood coming soon from Ocooch Hardwoods... Not about to waste any expensive wood so I figured it was time for more practice. My mother in law gave me some 1 inch thick cedar planks that were in her garage probably 20 years and although straight, they were super dry and hard. Since I never tried stack cutting or even wrapping a project with packing tape it was time to give it a shot. I still had that maple leaf pattern I traced from the leaf found on the ground so this would be my first time making a box with that leaf design using 1/4" ply on the top and bottom with that brick hard cedar sandwiched inside. The biggest blade was a #7 it got it done but it was slow going through 1-1/2"... So I surprised myself trying something new that turned out okay I guess. Put some wipe on poly and calling it done!

Copper was cut on my scrollsaw with metal cutting blades and made to patina using some household stuff, ammonia, vinegar and salt.

Great job Jimmy! That’s thinking outside the box! Now about that wood coming. Chances are that wood will arrive wrapped in plastic. Leave it in the plastic wrap for a few days in your shop to let the wood acclimate to the humidity in your shop. After a few days, you might what is called sticker and stack. That is stacking the wood with thin wood spacers in between the boards. This is to allow air to circulate evenly around the wood. This is all to prevent your boards from warping. If you don’t want to sticker and stack, lean the boards against a wall or solid surface, again to allow even airflow around the boards. Most importantly, do not lay them flat on your workbench or table. Only the top surface will get airflow and cause the boards to warp. Warping of new board is the biggest complaint we hear about when ordering wood online. Heres an example of a couple hundred dollars of wood ordered from Ochooch Hardwoods that I stacked and stickered.

Saw this on pictures of @Rolf's dust collection set up. I decided to try it. In the past I have twisted the loc-line up and out of the way to move it out of the way to move the blade to another hole. That means when I want the sucker back in place I have to twist it down and fiddle with it to get it right where I want it. That wears out the loc-line and it is not cheap not fun to replace joints of it. With this union I just swing the sucker to the side out of the way and when I swing it back it is right where I want it. No fiddling. Now I am pondering on a way to do something similar for the blower side.... This took me less than 4 minutes 32 seconds to put in. Thanks Rolf!

This is light box that I made. I can change the panels for the different holidays. I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.

I was asked by a client, who had recently purchased two other pieces from me, to make a Breeching Whale cutting to give to her daughter for Christmas who is a ‘Save-The-Whales’ advocate. I found the popular Humpback Whale Image, converted it into an 11” x 17” scroll saw pattern and sent it to the client for approval. Her reply was that what she wanted was an image of a Whale Tail and, in her reply, sent me a photo image of what she was looking for. Although the photo was not appropriate to make a Scroll Saw Pattern from, I was able to find a similar image which I, once again, converted into an 11” x 14” scroll saw pattern and sent it to her for approval. In the text to her (with tongue-in-cheek and an emoji) I said, “If you like I could make the pair!”. Her reply was, “I like that idea” and proceeded to drop off the deposit I require before starting the cuttings. Both cuttings were made in 5/32” thick solid core Maple Ply panels and affixed to a 1/4" thick BB Ply backers. Color was added to both the Backers and the Cut Panels with an Air Bruch using Artist Acrylic Air Brush Paints. The assembled panels were finished with multiple coats of Deft Clear Gloss Lacquer. I made my usual 1 3/4” rail frames out of Poplar and applied a High Gloss Black Lacquer finish. Comments and critiques always welcome. Edit: Patterns posted in Pattern Exchange.

All the very nice comments that I received to my post in Bragging Rights re: ‘Whale of a Christmas Gift’ were based on the final work I showed in my post. However, that is not quite the whole story. My first conversion of the Whale Tail Image I found was not done correctly. Simply adding bridges to a line type image, I created in Inkscape using the Trace Bitmap command, may produce a scrollable pattern but doesn’t always result in a visually correct pattern. My foreground and background were kind of reversed and after a long tedious cut and an attempt at adding color, the panel was a disaster. The White of the Whale flukes were in the background and the Black was on top. The White was almost invisible and visually, the cutting just did not work. In addition to the cutting being visually wrong, I attempted to add color to the ocean on the foreground cut panel. Well, I’ve always admitted that, although I add color to my work, I’m not an artist when it comes to creating an image by painting. I just could not make the ocean water look like ocean water. So, I finally cried Unkle and decided to start over. I revisited the pattern and reworked the image, keeping the same general line work I started with, but changed the pattern to make the Whale area background all Black and the White of the Flukes and Body, on the foreground cut panel. This resulted in a scroll saw pattern that produced a “typical scrolled dark and light’ image that was visually appealing, and that I was able to add my colorization efforts to. Well, I wasted a Maple plywood panel I use, maybe 15 to 20 hours of cutting time, quite a bit of Air Brush Paint and a lot of paint application and dry time, but I’m very glad I came to my senses and redid the panel. And, although I feel my scrolling abilities are fairly decent, I’m still learning to use Inkscape and the ‘Art’ of creating well designed, visually correct, scroll saw patterns. So, this project was not a complete waste as it resulted in some valuable ‘Lesson’s Learned’. Sorry no pics of panel....fire pit tinder.

I find blade slippage due to the clamps, The pegas do last longer, stay sharper longer down side is they are more brittle and if I happen to bend a blade, even slightly during hole entry Pegas will probably break prematurely.

It’s a beauty. Now my wife wants “GRUMPY OLD WOMAN”. I did not get a good response when I suggested GRUMPIER would be more suitable ’

Syd, All look great. This was one of the earliest pieces I made when I first started to do Scrolling. It sits prodly on display by my desk!

This project was cut on a 16" x 10" x 5/8" piece of salvaged American Chestnut using patterns by Jacob Fowler and Sue Walters for the scrollsawing which I then modified during the carving process. It was stained with artist oil paints and finished with Minwax Polycrylic finish. The Chestnut seen in the background was not stained and this is the natural color of the wood. It was easy to see why Chestnut was so popular among the early American furniture craftsmen because of its workability and finishing qualities. Dick

They are all finished and wrapped and will fly out to Ireland and Norway in 2 weeks. Mainly pine because of weight but 5 which will stay in Australia are Tasmanian Myrtle. All are approx, 6" x 4". Marg

I am flattered! I also did not glue any of the joints as I periodically get small jams. I also added trap to catch the small pieces I did not want to lose. I put a screen on the suction side. I may make a new trap or modify this one so it behaves like a mini Cyclone.

@dgmangives great advice here. One of my main problems when I buy wood is having it cup.. the thinner the more it occurs. I have been doing as Dan describes and it helps a lot. I have tried many of the methods found on the internet t un-cup wood but have had little success. I rarely purchase less than 1/2" thick any more.. I would rather purchase thicker and plane it down than purchase thinner and have it be unusable. It also depends on where you purchase the wood, some don't thin it until it is dryer than others.. Just my experience.

Yeah, I have one of those . . . helped a friend build a deck using special order Trex [3 week waiting time for an order] and I measured the last piece wrong and cut it wrong. I freaked out. I still have a piece of that displayed prominently in my workshop (garage) with a sign on it that says: "Are You Sure?" Full Disclosure: I still make mistakes, but I'd like to think . . . just not as often. Oh, and my friend is still a friend.

I don’t think it is slippage because when I start cutting with a new blade the tension lever on my Hawk is stiff likes it’s supposed to be. The longer I cut the easier it is to flip over and you can tell while you’re cutting that the tension is less. I don’t have that problem with the Pegas blades. I’m going to use up the Eberle blades and I probably won’t buy anymore and stick with Pegas.

I love how people have been getting ideas from Rolf's post. This is my execution when I saw his setup. When I raise the arm up, the locline moves up and will be in the exact same place when I lower it. The actual pivot point is my flex pipe. I also added a blast gate which "throttles" my lower vac, some pieces cover all the holes and the suction is too much underneath. This brings suction more to the top vac. I just ordered more locline for my drill press. My flax pipe is not doing the job alone.

This is my attempt at Frank’s Kokopelli Band. Still in my early stages of scrolling and this is the most challenging project I have tried. Made out of 1 inch recycled Rimu that a scavenged from a demolition site. The wood is very dry and quite brittle in the thinner places but oh well it is all part of the fun. So here it is with a big thank you to Frank.

Thanksgiving is a very serious time.............. Examples of adding color to scrolling.

My only Thanksgiving project.

Steve Good pattern. Nice way to use up some scrap wood.

Here’s a Turkey puzzle made from 1” Cherry. Cut with a FD #3 UR blade. Soaked in a 50/50 mixture of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits, then top coated with semi gloss lacquer.

I believe this can be put under the Bragging Rights forum very easily. Many beautiful pieces have passed through this site over the years and many of you either sell your items or give them away to family and friends and charities. So the question is what over the years has been your best seller or piece that gets asked for or you just decide to make and hand out. ?? Or both? What seller and what hand out? I will start and must preface this by saying I have been selling and making things for friends and family for over 40 years now and have made over 500 different items. Would have to pull out the records to know exact numbers and even that would not tell the whole story because I use to make things for Steebar many moons ago when the original owner was still alive and they were a good company to deal with. He would put them in his catalog. Many times John Nelson made the patterns that I would do prototype of and work out tweaks. But these watches have to be #1 for sales. and the heart has also a lot of sales but is also one that I gave out very often because it fits homes well. So lets see yours too.

I finished this Jim Blume pattern this afternoon and the wife dubbed it as being one of my best pieces. I'm not so sure about that but I will say it is an outstanding pattern and a lot of fun to cut. I tried to find my directions to count the number of cuts using Inkscape but never could locate them among my "never lose anything" filing system I have set up on my computer. This was cut using the Blonde wood I had located at Lowe's with a Birch backer. The piece is stained with Ipswich and the backer is stained with Ebony. Four coats of Polyacrylic and pre-fab framing material provided the finish. I do spline my frames. Despite the many holes, the piece is quite easy to cut. There is only one delicate area, that being the lower part of the eagle's neck... the part just under his beak. I encourage you to give it a try.

Keep sharing these ideas and mods folks. I’m going to show hubby so he can get me figured out with my saw and portable Festool I did end up getting once we moved. Unfortunately, we’ve had a significant life event get in the way of getting it all setup yet. We’ll get there though.

fantastic job, It's beautiful

Sasho contributed the pattern for this to our library about a year ago. To me, it's both sad and happy at the same it. I immediately cut it, but only this week got around to framing 'Life' and it now hangs over my desk. The foreground, the background, and the frame are all quarter-sawn white oak.

Nicely done Jimmy

Hi Sydknee: Are you crazy??? Why are you trying to piss off the Mrs. True or not, some things should never be said out loud Oh, BTW, nice work, you can display any of your work anytime looks really good, keep it going Fab4

Hi Frank: Fire Pit Tinder or as some of us say "Designer firewood" Just goes to prove that we are never too old to learn Crying "unkle" is this case was necessary by the sounds of it (Good move) The end result was satisfactory. It did turn out great. As scrollers, if you have never made a mistake, (FPT or DW) then you're doing it wrong Keep up the great work Frank, thanks for sharing your story Fab4

Looks very good. I just came into some Canadian cedar myself. It does have a nice grain to it.

Looks great! You should be bragging.

Really nice! The grain on the cedar and the way the plywood took the stain on the edges looks great.

That is really pretty. Great job, You should be bragging! Hang on to that cedar, you will find more uses for it!

Thanks. I considered it, but my ego got the better of me. Didn't, and don't, want to dimiss the myth that I'm nearly perfect and I never make the big bad mistakes, and I always do everything worth bragging about. That is far from the truth and my post was condescension enough. I don't often make too many cutting mistakes but I freuently do make the big type mistakes and many of my cuttings wind up in the fire tinder pile well before, or even during, colorization and finishing. If I'm not happy with how it looks, then nobody else gets a chance to see it, usually not even my better half. I believe most out there can relate. However, in the case of the Whale Tail, the better half did see it and she was the one who convinced me to start over from scratch. When she says it is bad, It is really BAD. I'm sure you get the picture

Thanks Rodney. Facebook seems to be the easiest.

I do not normally sell things. But on request I did sell 4 of these for $125 ea. One buyer said when he picked his up said $125 was not really enough and gave me another $10.

Another Steve Good design finished over the weekend and I spent way too much time and trouble... I hate to scroll ovals, especially two with one being slightly larger for the backer. Nothing seemed to go right. Drilled the entry holes a tad too little in the tight spots and bent new blades trying to bottom feed. I ran an old blade in first to make the holes a bit larger and it helped "some" of the time. Got so pissed I loosened the clamps and tried to snatch the bent blade out but, forgot to loosen the bottom one and sliced my thumb. Good thing the blades have small teeth. It kept going downhill when the flat black paint on the wood backer showed fish eyes and had to repaint even though the wood was prepped properly. I also wanted to line the backer up to have an even reveal all around and didn't want to chance it with glue and have it set up before I got it centered. So, I ended up using double stick tape which let me move it around before I put the pressure on it. Whew, didn't mean to write a book but sometimes something that I thought would be easy to do ends up kicking my butt!!!

Hi Travis, Just want to thank you again for the Ornaments for Charity. Our Scroll saw club, Baystate Scrollahs, have been making ornaments to decorate the Holiday tree at Woodcraft in Walpole MA. for about 8 years now. Tree goes up day after Thanksgiving. The club votes on a local charity each year. The store sells the ornaments, only $5 each, and the monies then are given to the Charity for that year. Last year the club raised $1305. That's at $5 each...That's a lot of Ornaments!!! The store now has people come in each year specifically looking for the Ornaments and what's new designs for the current year. It has become a traditions for their kids to go to WC and pick out their Ornament for their tree at home. It's a WIN, WIN, WIN for everybody. Store get their tree decorated, Our Club gets visibility and shows the wonderful neat things the little saw can make, and the Charity gets need monies. Maybe some of your Scroll Saw Village people can approach their local woodworking store and see about a similar way to show ornaments for sale for their local charities. Thanks again Travis...you do so much for this wonderful genre of woodworking. Melita

My son asked if I could find a good pattern of Jimi Hendrix and scroll three one for himself and two to give to guitar friends. So I found this pattern by Charles Dearing. My son approved it. Stack cut 4- 1/8 thick" 16" tall x11" wide.

Very cool. I love the blue water splashes a drops. Looks awesome. Now an interesting question, Is the daughter also save the forest? Will she care that this is made from wood? If there a chance that your customer looks at this post just let me know I will promptly edit and remove this question. Me. just asking dumb questions again.

For those interested in the previous year's Custom Ornament Business Kits, they are still available in the eBooks section. I've also listed them below. Lots of really cool designs to expand your product line.

Here is my new Christmas countdown calendar. Digits are replaceable, I made a short video preview to show how it works. Recommended size is 8,5 x 6,5 inches, pattern consists of 4 layers, stand and digits (2 layers) Pattern - https://www.etsy.com/shop/AlexFoxUA

Here is my attempt at this great pattern. Not sure what the wood is, except thin! This is only my third attempt at spirals. Used a #1. Some lines became suggestions . Finished with beeswax/mineral oil.

You may or may not recall a couple of weeks ago I posted a paper cut pattern of a little house tucked in among a lot of foliage. Well I received a lot of nice comments. I found still another paper cut pattern that was a little more challenging than the first one and showed it to my wife who immediately wanted me to cut that one with a matching backer board color. So I printed the pattern and set out to cut it for her. She was pleased with it and we hung it yesterday beside the first paper cut pattern containing the little house. I again cut the entire pattern with a #1 spiral blade and after a few hours had it finished. I used a 1/4 inch thick solid core Baltic Birch covering, of which I do not like the wood I used but it came out alright from the front side. Now my wife is happy having the new item on the wall and I was thrilled to find a project that challenged me to cut. Dick heppnerguy

More planes joining my fleet.

As the title says another fun H Botas pattern, I may try to color this one too. My wife is a RN so I thought it was fitting. A fun cut.

As many of you already know I and my family left Ukraine and we are safe in Latvia now. We had to make this difficult decision and leave everything to be safe. I spent a lot of time to draw up many documents for different social and government services and finally it is time to return to pattern making. I used to make photos and video to show my customers how finished projects (mostly layered) look like. Unfortunately I cant do it now. But I started learning new for me program - LightWave 3D. Luckly I have experience with programs for 3D modeling and visualisation. I took my recent pattern (C198-fox) and tried to work with it. And here are first results. What do you think about such 3D previews? Fox pattern