Thread: 'Tis the season for chopping

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen
Once again, I have been extremely busy. Firstly No 1 son has decided to get into woodwork and has made a couple of chopping boards as gifts. Did a reasonable job on them and of course, being a young male, left all the mess and tools to put away for Dad, God bless them.

I thought some natural edged chopping boards would be very quick and easy, so took him to my secret log stash and I found some fantastically curly Jarrah. I was full of the flu, so was avoiding work, cold and dust. Let him use the mighty 660. Well, he mucked around, went through two tanks and fuel for only 15 boards, of various thicknesses, in each board. Oh well, he is learning. Got them home, run through the thicknesser and end grain sealed them with wax. The grain was stunning. So good in fact, that when I got better, I had to grab some for bowl blanks and more chopping boards, approximately 35 super curly Jarrah, and approximately 20 super curly timber which I suspect is Tuart, but am I not 100% sure. Wow, the grain is superb. Went to use the thicknesser, but all that happened was the smoke, which is usually contained in all electrical devices, escaped! Thus rendering the thicknesser smokeless. I am now in the market for a thicknesser. It was 10 years old and only a GMC.

Today, I got a call from a mate who is helping a lady get into wood turning. She had a large Jarrah dropped on her property and needed a large saw to break it down. Once again 660 got a good run. I also had a mate ask me for a large Jarrah log to mill into coffee tables, so the first section I took as a log. The photo shows the log in the trailer, good colour and some nice black fleck. I also took the opportunity to cut some smaller bowl blanks to teach people how to turn.

So in summary, approximately 70 largish chopping boards with exquisite grain, approximately 45 med to large bowl blanks, 25 100x 100 x 300mm long blanks for brew mugs, salt and pepper shakers, fish bats etc, and a log which will be slabbed for coffee tables, good couple of days, very productive and enjoyable.

I get a couple of days off next week, will go back and get some of the super curly Jarrah, yaaaaaaaay. This will hopefully go towards paying for a new thicknesser.

In the photos, you will see some of the bowl blanks with the frypan I use to melt wax and seal the timbers to prevent them drying out too quickly and cracking.

Thanks for looking,
Sincerely
Willy

Jarrahland