Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Oak slab question - wood working

If I wanted to carve to sell I'd do those.
That one is nice...they turn a good buck too...

I have access to a few private islands that are loaded with blown over weathered cedar.
Always procrastinating about hauling a load or three outta there one day, seems like a lot of work.

Are you cutting your own slabs?

JB Weld hardener or PC Petrifier. This stuff is used to harden rotten wood under sill rot repairs.

Had my slabs cut following a hurricane some years back. 14 cedars down in the yard and a fair number in the rest of the neighborhood. Salvaged what I could, let them cure for about 18 months. Wound up with a couple thou board feet of 1/2/3" slabs ranging from 12' to about 24" wide. Still have a fair bit. miss the shade. Have one left in the yard that has a butt of about 36".

Great looking stuff. I think I might get something decent out of this slab. We'll see.

34 to 36 is what the one measures that I started carving on. I let it sit elevated for around 3 to 5 years before I messed with it. I had hand peeled all the bark from it before the bugs could get after that first layer.

I took it to a couple of different mills to get it cut up and both times it didn't work out, mill down for maintenance once, guy that ran the other mill was outta town for 5 weeks at the next. It sat around for a while longer then I just decided to turn it into what it is today. It's still a work in progress, I am still cutting on it every now and then.

I been using Teak Oil for my finish with great results. It's not really my first horse race when it comes to outdoor wood finishes. Most everything else times out and goes to hell at some point. With the Teak Oil I just hit it again, hose it on with a cheap pump up sprayer. Just takes a few minutes. In the beginning that cedar soaks up quite a few coats of oil before it's saturated and starts to give me a little gloss but after that it lasts for years with just a refresher now and again.

I've always hed great respect for folks that can carve like that, that is quite something.

I can't draw a stick man without fuggin' it up!

Those are nice Dan, the deep red is sweet!

I'm not much of a carver but have done a little. OTOH I loathe right angles, so mebbe it works out? Learned a fair bit about wood craft restoring vintage wooden yachts many moons ago and have dabbled off and on since. Love hardwoods, particularly persimmon and a few other oddities...worked sales for a millwork shop that did odd things like zebra wood counters in laundry rooms.

I like wood.

In another life I was a genius with polyester and epoxy resins.

Update on this. Its hot as hell for January, so I've been outside with a wire wheel brush and it's cleaned up this rotten edge real nice. Next is sanding the whole thing. Might stabilized the crack with some bowties, just for fun and aesthetics. Then onto finishing.

Wife wants a high table behind leather sofa. Think it will look good there.

Again, thanks for all ideas.

This slab is now behind a couch in my living room. Happy with how it turned out. Ive decided I need a 30" planer.

Thanks for ideas and advice.

Oh yeah, stabilized the crack with bowties but then decided to do an epoxy pour. That leaked all over my shop floor, so re-taped and did it again. Turned out great.

Sealed with Bona HD hardwood floor sealer. Great finish. Bombproof too.

Good news. My shop floor is epoxied now.

Absolutely outstanding.

Thanks. I'm glad I didn't burn it.....

Living Edge furniture is often poorly done... yours is spot on.

Nice work!

Stabilize the rot with Git-Rot.

See it here.

Wire wheel burned it out. I did stabilize crack with epoxy. Used these guys. Great deep pour stuff.

https://www.superepoxysystems.com/liquid-glass-epoxy/

Note a spoke shave but a draw knife. Start off by having the bevel down so you can hog off the bad spots.

Wire wheel burned it out. I did stabilize crack with epoxy. Used these guys. Great deep pour stuff.

https://www.superepoxysystems.com/liquid-glass-epoxy/[/quote

I didn't think to mention it but that was a damn fine job you did on that table.

I'll be going with that stuff on next winters project, If time allows I'm going to make a keepsake Coffee / magazine table and maybe a couple of end tables to go with it.

Dimensions?