redfishsc
Member
Here is a bookshelf I made out of some "#2 common" hickory I got at a GREAT price (three walnut Jr Gent FP's for 100+ bf of 5/4 hickory was a good deal to me).
I love the #2 common stuff- lots of "defects" and knotholes, which I didn't bother to cut around save for the worst. You can really see them in the shelves of the empty bookshelf.
Note that the stuff started out as 5/4 material, so I finished everything out at 1" thick. The planer at the shop I work at just had a very hard time planing this stuff, and since I was building it 30 minutes at a time on my lunch break, planing off that 1/4" to 3/4 would have taken forever. I was in a hurry!
The back is a sheet of 1/4" birch ply, and I purposely chose the most wild-grained, wierd figured I could find. I love the large "curls" in the grain. Unfortunately it is totally lost once the shelf was "bookified"
The finish is two coats of ML Campbell's "Krystal" conversion varnish, the very stuff I spray my pens with. This is a satin sheen, I wanted it to still look a bit like raw wood when done but be protected as only conversion varnish can.
Before "bookification"
After "bookification"
I love the #2 common stuff- lots of "defects" and knotholes, which I didn't bother to cut around save for the worst. You can really see them in the shelves of the empty bookshelf.
Note that the stuff started out as 5/4 material, so I finished everything out at 1" thick. The planer at the shop I work at just had a very hard time planing this stuff, and since I was building it 30 minutes at a time on my lunch break, planing off that 1/4" to 3/4 would have taken forever. I was in a hurry!
The back is a sheet of 1/4" birch ply, and I purposely chose the most wild-grained, wierd figured I could find. I love the large "curls" in the grain. Unfortunately it is totally lost once the shelf was "bookified"
The finish is two coats of ML Campbell's "Krystal" conversion varnish, the very stuff I spray my pens with. This is a satin sheen, I wanted it to still look a bit like raw wood when done but be protected as only conversion varnish can.
Before "bookification"
After "bookification"
.