Crows Ash Kitchen Benchtop

[Pittwater Pete]

Thanks FF

The dust hasn't been a problem. I have dust extraction on all my machinery and we've (Son & I) been wearing dust masks and using the Festool vacs on the sanders and planer. We also clean up at the end of each day. It all helps to keep the dust a bay. Apparently its posible to develop an allergy to it from extended exposure.

Regards

Pete.

[Pittwater Pete]

[QUOTE=FenceFurniture;1893312]

Is this a nice piece?

Sorry FF

I didn't answer your question.
The piece that was marked "fiddleback" was not labelled by me but was already there when I got the timber. I would not have marked it fiddleback but rather "backsawn & figured" as it was not really fiddleback. It was very wavy grain though. I'll try and get a close up photo and post it tomorrow.

Regards

Pete.

[DaveTTC]

I was wondering where FF goot the pic from and what it was. Now i know

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

[Pittwater Pete]

image.jpg
I took the first top (smallest one) out of the clamps and gave it a sand up to 500 grit. I'm happy with it. Tomorrow I'll try and get the psydo mitres cut and fitted and then do the last of the gluing.
image.jpgThe benchtop above sits on this cabinet which will sit to the left of the stove. The carcase is made from 16mm Birch Plywood laminated both sides with white laminate (before you ask - it was the Architects request). The drawer boxes are Hoop Pine with Birch Plywood bottoms and finished in Tung Oil.

Pete.

[Pittwater Pete]

I was wondering where FF goot the pic from and what it was. Now i know

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

He clearly has an eye for detail.

P.

[DaveTTC]

That too is looking sweet as. Only seen timber splash backs with a square back corner. Love the round

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

[FenceFurniture]

That too is looking sweet as. Only seen timber splash backs with a square back corner. Love the round

What he said

[Arron]

Hi Pete,

doing my Devils advocate thing again.

I love the splashback with its smooth, rounded, wipeable union to the benchtop, but I cant help noticing that on the end of the bench the splashback is running longrain against the benchtop's endgrain. Doesn't this create one of the old expansion&contraction problems ? Sometimes those gaps that emerge after a while on furniture give it character but I'm not sure I'd want one on a food preparation surface.

BTW, if you have already covered this off then please excuse me, the red wines I had with dinner mean I may have missed it.

BTWA, I love your detailed WIPs. I'm looking forward to the next one. Please keep them coming.

cheers
Arron

[Pittwater Pete]

Hi Arron.

I'm more than happy for you to play Devils advocate. I was wondering where you were.
I knew someone would raise the issue of opposite grain direction. I pondered it for a while myself and raised it with the Architect. There is a risk of movement, but I think the risk is low for the following reasons;

• Crows Ash is a very stable timber by its nature. When I ripped the all of the long beams, they did not bend or twist all. I mean, nothing. I don't think I've ever seen that before. Quite remarkable really.
• It has been recycled from beams that are very old which adds to its stability.
• It has been stored locally for at least two years to reach local moisture content. Even though I think this hasn't changed at all.
• It has a natural oiliness that helps to reduce the change in moisture content which again adds to its stability.
• The timber is backed to a hardwood plywood substrate using epoxy.
• The coving is rebated and epoxied into the benchtop.
• And lastly, the Architect says it will be fine .

Anyway, you're absolutely right, it could move, and in most cases you wouldn't do it this way, but in this case, I'm confident that it will be fine. If something goes wrong, I promise to own up and report it back to the Forum

I hope you're enjoying your red, I just got home from my Dad's 85 th birthday and have just poured one for myself.

As for another WIP, I'm not sure yet.

Cheers

Pete.

[FenceFurniture]

It has been recycled from beams that are very old which adds to its stability.

May or may not have been the case with your timber (being beams and all), but the 60 year old hardwood joists from the Bowling Club behind me, that I'm currently working with to make decking boards, are from the days when they were green when built with, and nailed into straight position (I figure some of these Norfcoast Hardwood "specials" would have had freshly sawn minds of their own back in the day).

As a result, they were not too foul at all to joint, and pretty consistent in the subsequent thicknessing. Virtually nil twisting, and very limited bowing/cupping in lengths of ~1500mm and less.

No such thing as "free" timber though. Reckon I've spent more on leckricity et all than 10.5 m² of merbau boards would have cost. However, the Merbau would have NOTHING like the inherent character of ye olde sticks.

Pete, I s'pose for your project that leaving a few blackened nail holes would be right out (architect and all), but I love 'em! There's something about the contrast of the (newly discovered - been locked away under rough sawn skin, creosote and absolute darkness underfloor for 60 years) gorgeous timber underneath - hidden in full view - and the black nails holes reminding the observer of the timber's heritage. Most of what I'm working with for the deck is Tallow wood which is in the same league as CA for stability, and is also inherently greasy. You could probably call it "poor man's CA", so not consistently as handsome as CA but I've been surprised by some pieces.

[Pittwater Pete]

Hi FF

Im pretty sure that these Crows Ash beams would have, initially, been used green, as was the norm of the time. During my apprenticeship we milled all of our own Tallowood window sills and thresholds and remember getting quite wet whilst ripping and thicknessing.
As mentioned earlier, I haven't used Crows Ash before and maybe this is just a particularly good batch of timber, but boy is it straight. It's pretty cool to rip a 3.5 m piece of 60 x 170 timber longitudinally through the saw and see a 3.5 mm gap at the far end as you complete the cut. Doesn't happen that much.

I too like the recycled look with the history of nail and bolt holes left in the finished product. I have used a bit in my own home. I did discuss this with the client prior to commencement of the job and it was decided to remove all imperfections as possible. I agree in this case as the timber was really really good, with very little holes or imperfections. The brief for this project is to show the Crows Ash at its absolute best, and Im attempting to do this.

I like the Crows Ash a lot but Tallowood is great too. If I had to pay for it, I'd choose Tallowood, but it would need to be the darker, greener stuff rather than the quicker grown lighter stuff that is sold now.

Pete.

[DaveTTC]

Good thing the architect said it would be ok cause they're always right

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

[Pittwater Pete]

image.jpg

[rustynail]

image.jpg

He probably determined the shirt length too

[Pittwater Pete]

image.jpgimage.jpgTo start the day today I made a template from some MDF and routered the mitres. Used a brand new 1/2 inch cutter with the bearing up top so that I could work from the face. Also used a long coarse jigsaw blade to cut most of the waste out first because the Crows Ash is very hard and does not like to be end grain routered much. I only left 2 mm to route.
image.jpgimage.jpg
image.jpgNow that's done, I've made another template for the cutouts for the rounded corner infill details. Keep reading, you'll get what I'm doing shortly.
image.jpgI cut them with the jigsaw and routered them the same way I did the mitres and then chopped the corners square. Then cut and fitted the infill pieces. Here's the result dry fitted. Edge mouldings will be added last.
image.jpgimage.jpgI still need to complete the last of the splashback coving and then the final glue up tomorrow but this is roughly what it looked like early this morning as a whole.
image.jpgI'm a bit over typing today. That's why there's less clap trap and more pics.

Regards

Pete.