Walnut and oak with Osage Orange and Padauk accents
Because you are an artist my friend, that is beautiful!
this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
378 points (99.5% liked)
Woodworking
6515 readers
129 users here now
A handmade home for woodworkers and admirers of woodworkers. Our community icon is submitted by @[email protected] whose father was inspired to start woodworking by Norm and the New Yankee Workshop.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Boom! You called it! Gorgeous work!
Too kind, truly!
Thank you for the kind words!
I hate it. But, damn that's some nice, clean work. You feel like an artist because you are one.
Appreciate your honesty lol what do you hate about it?
I don't actually hate it. I love it because it's difficult thing to make, you had the courage to share it, and you asked me why.
I don't like how the accents have little contrast. And, the waves are irregular but don't seem to follow a natural edge. It doesn't "speak" to me in a way I can easily understand.
I can dig it, thanks for your feedback!
I'd say I'm an artist. But, not in a traditional sense. I see that many others said about what I said. And, I don't want you be discouraged.
When I'm creating something it's rarely very original. Others have already figured out how to "speak" to others with their art. My art is usually a copy of another's idea that I'd tweaked. Or it's an amalgamation of several ideas that I thought would work well together.
But, sometimes the point of creation isn't to speak to others. Or, perhaps I'm not saying what they'd like to hear. I think this is what's happened here. No one faults your workmanship. They're just recognizing that you weren't thinking about them when you created it while also finding no fault with that choice.
I encourage you to create and share again. This time, make a very conscious choice of who is your audience. Attach no guilt to a hypothetical choice to speak a language very few will understand.
I really appreciate you taking the time to come back and make sure I wasn't discouraged by the feedback that I received. I'm not discouraged in the slightest, if anything I agree with most of what has been said. I didn't intend to go into the design choices behind this board at all but originally it was just going to be the groovy walnut and oak board with Padauk separating them. However this piece was meant to speak to one person, as you say, and the Osage Orange became the crux of the design, despite being my most limited material on hand.
The clients dad passed away a few months ago and he apparently made knives while he was alive and had some short logs of Osage Orange he intended to use for that purpose. Well time comes for us all and since I didn't have a good relationship with my bio dad I made an extra effort to make this board special for the client who was close to his dad. The longest straight piece I could get was about 12 inches which isn't long enough for a cutting board, hence the stopped cuts terminating in a Padauk plug. When viewed horizontally the Osage accents look like a timeline with overlap, hopefully conveying a sense of "carry on" to the client. If I had my druthers I'd have had longer pieces of Osage and use those instead of the Padauk to separate the main boards.
Thanks again for the feedback! I will post more soon, I really appreciate the feedback. And it's the critical feedback that helps the most.
I read this then looked at it again. Now I kinda like it. The choices make much more sense. I've never experienced such a rapid shift in aesthetic preferences before. I don't know what else to say except, Thank You.
Life is all about perspective, friend. Thanks for sharing yours.
I'm not the original poster but I also hate it. It's those lines that kill it for me. If it wasn't for those I'd love it. But it's beautiful work.
Thanks for your feedback, friend!
Thats lovely. Nicely done.
Thank you, I try.
Bacon Board
Groovy 🥓
Gorgeous and really like the inlay accent work.
Thank you! It's a technique I'm fond of.
The construction is top notch, but I have to, unfortunately, agree with others that the color choices aren't my cup of tea. That being said, color choice is all subjective, you can be proud of what you made!
Well executed, but the wood choices and contrasts in shape are a bit much for my tastes. I feel like the curves and the Osage bits fight each other, and that yellow tones in the oak fight those in the Osage.
You certainly seem to know what you're doing, those curves are very nice and the veneer technique looks nice and clean.
As someone with no knowledge of woodwork, how do you even do this? Do you glue the pieces together? How do you make the different woods line up so perfectly?
As well you should.
Appreciate ya!
Beautiful!
Thanks!
beautiful work!
Appreciate ya!
That is absolutely gorgeous! Is this a charcuterie board or cutting board?
Thanks so much! I think they plan to use it as a cutting board.
I don't think I could trust oak in a cutting board. It just has too many open pores. I'd be worried about food working its way in and never being able to properly clean it.
@BradleyUffner @Marafon I found this podcast really good for thinking about finish on cutting boards and wood choices. Basically as the bacteria gets pulled into the grain it dies and so no finish is good and open grain is okay. At least that was my take.
Lovely looking chopping board :) The lines and dots look really fun and I have not see one like that before.
Thanks for linking that podcast I will have to listen to it later but the little bit I listened to already sounds right up my alley.
Do you have a link for the podcast? I'm curious to hear what they have to say.
@BradleyUffner Ha! Totally missed that I had not added the link. Here you go https://www.finewoodworking.com/2024/10/04/stl325-no-finish-no-problem
Oh man, then you really wouldn't trust the red oak spatulas I made from the tree that hit my house lol
Purty.
Also, RIP your tools. Jesus. processing some rough-cut Pecan (related to hickory) about drove me batty, and bois d'arc is even harder.
Never heard it's French name before but when I first worked this species it was turning a couple end grain bowls and boy howdy, you ain't kidding. Had to sharpen the bowl gouge 3 times to finish both bowls and I about gave up on the last one.
Gorgeous!!!
Thanks!
JFC you did that by hand? That's impressive.
By hand? Hell no, I use power tools lol. Appreciate ya!
Ah right, in this case "by hand" means without a CNC router/mill. I can barely draw a straight line so this is pretty amazing to me.
That’s the shit.
You're the shit for thinking it's the shit. Appreciate ya!