A Fish Clock ?

Lets face the truth. The clock part in incidental. The spalted wood is the star of the photo. The challenge with the spalted wood was some of it was so punk that I had to harden it with Minwax harder first.

More Tallow Boxes

It would seem that once I hit upon something I like, I do it over and over again. (eating ice cream comes to mind). These are two views of some of the "tallow boxes" I have made recently.

The front box is butternut and oak.

The two behind are made of poplar and painted. I call them Princess boxes because one is gold and purple and the other one that looks green is really peacock blue in good light.

The butternut boxes are for sale at Spencer's Mercantile on Locke St. in Hamilton Ontario.

The Princess boxes will go to Princesses I know for Christmas

BIG BOLD WOODEN BUTTONS

my latest time killer, and user of small bits of wood.

Poplar, Aspen. Cottonwood etc.

The trees of the Poplar family are fast growing and very common in the North eastern US and Canada. In terms of hardness it is about twice as hard as pine and half as hard as oak.

Many of my shop projects are made from poplar. I have a very good source of rough lumber in Brant Custom Woods and I find the wood very consistant and easy to work with either hand tools or machines.

Another bonus to poplar is that it is not a commonly used wood in many applications and so very reasonable to buy. It is also available in wide boards. I have commonly seen 16 inch wide boards 2 inches think and 10 feet long.

If you look through my blog the crib and dry vase are popular. The wood has a slight greenish tint but that is easily hidden by stain. The greenish tint and varied grain pattern probably tell against it when people choose the wood for their projects. The interest and variety is an advantage to me, I like grain.