Curb Wood Art Thomas Murphy: April 2010

Monday, April 19, 2010

Pick Axe Four Dollars

This pick axe was made from Walnut wood. The wood came from the large branch of a tree in our yard. When we had it trimmed for safety reasons we saved the wood and had it rough cut to planks. We took it in the trunk of our 1991 Buick LeSabre and to a field south of Franklin WI. My father drove our Champagne colored Buick on the canted edge of a farmers sod field all the way around and then we drove down a hill and through some trees. There we found some men working. One of them was the owner of a portable saw mill. A horizontally articulated band saw was mounted on a conveying framework that tracked the blade to cut a fixed board width down the length of the log. It was very noisy and dust was flying. Sometimes it skipped a little and jolted back to form a roughly surfaced cut. The wood was left to dry in the yard and somewhat stacked with interdispersed slats. It wasn’t protected enough from the elements and warped and eventually formed some black rot. My father and I made things with it through the years. Good strong dense hardwood with a strong core. The warpage and rot did prove to be a challenge to expedited woodworking but indeed a worthwhile endeavor.

The metal pick part was bought from; I believe it was SurplusCenter.com for three or four dollars. The metal had an oxidized black finish. Using the iterative process it was cleaned with soap and water, emery cloth, wire brush, vinegar, spray can primed hung up to dry and finish painted with spray can gold colored paint and then clear coated.

The Walnut is actually two pieces of walnut laminated together, because that is all the wood I had to use to make it and because it is stronger that way. The end tip of the handle has a round brass fitting I custom made from recycled electrical parts that keeps it bastioned together in case I have to dig more extremely for gold with it.

The wooden handle is finished to smooth gloss and fitted much like my story of making hammer handles found elsewhere in my blogs.

And yes making nice crafts, charms, tools, and designs does tend to enrich our lives. Who knew?

God Bless,

Thomas Paul Murphy

Steamship Coat Rack

This coat rack was made from recycled oak. Three skinny strips were laminated together lengthwise. There are screws that were countersunk and dowels covered the heads. When doing a project like this it is important not to “sink” the screws were the chimneys of the “steamship” are to be sunk, otherwise you risk potential weakening in finished structure as well drilling through the screw issues.

The “Steam Posts” were made from a recycled broken broom handle. Just because something is broken in one place does not make the whole of it worthless.

Contrasting stains were used to offset the posts from the “Hull” in appearance.

The brass fixtures that are mounted to the studs behind the drywall were purchased from Lowes home improvement store.

With stylistic design this coat rack accentuates the entrance to our house. I didn’t think of christening it with a name. Just not appropriate.

God Bless,

Thomas Paul Murphy

The Regency Cane

This is my woodworking logo as pictured on this regency can I made for my father.

The recycled oak wood was laminated lengthwise and turned on the lathe. It has an Epoxy Lite finish I applied at the same time I coated the dining room table I made.

I find Epoxy glues and finishes to be one of the most potent neurotoxins known and when I mix I try to get more than one job done with the same batch and let it dry in the garage and not in the house. A very good principle. Let applied glues dry in the garage and not in the house where you and your loved ones live. Loved ones like to breathe fresh air the best. Trust me on this one.

The head of this cane was the Regency model and came from Rockler woodworking. It is heavy and cost about $13. If I were to make another cane for my elderly parents I would opt to find a very light can head. Say plated and hollow strong aluminum or alloy. They don’t like to use this cane because it is too heavy. It is very strong though. The heads on these are fitted somewhat like a compression plumbing fitting. It is an iterative process to sand a little off around the top and see if it fits before I finally added some Eco Glue and screwed it on tight for a temporary permanence. That is the terms 3M used to describe its yellow sticky pads when it first introduced them.

God Bless,

Thomas Paul Murphy

Chess Boards

I made two of these Chess or Checkers boards. They are made from Cherry, Walnut, Cedar and Pine.

The one with the Cherry wood squares is a lot nicer. As the grain of the Cherry has a sort of pearlescent shimmer.

The boards start out as eight pieces of wood strips. The strips are actually three pieces of laminated ~ ¾” strips. There is a trick to getting the Squares to line up square and that is done with the router. The Cherry squares are ¼” thick inserts that will not pop out like traditional inlays. The eight strips are held together with three ¼” threaded rods holding it together. They are framed in Walnut and finished with my custom stain. Strength and durability of structure all the hallmark of good design. What kind other kinds of foundations would we have in our lives?

I have found that a sound tenet of good design is also to use odds and ends pieces to see what you can come up with. It is counter to our culture of only buying new when we need something which puts little faith in what we have to work with already. This is a harder way to design things and all but impossible to do accept for the thoughtful man. If it is worth doing it is worth doing well and how else are we to do this accept for with what we have already. A good principal to follow. It kind of reminds me sometimes of that Spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” The scene where the character Tuco goes into the gun shop and takes the chamber from one gun, the barrel from another and the handle from another, and it works better than each of the three would have before. For all his flaws and indeed crimes, this ability was not one of them.

God Bless,

Thomas Paul Murphy

Train Crossing Sign

This is an abstract representation of a railroad crossing oncoming train signal. LED lights were fitted in old boats trailers light fixtures and mounted to this cross. They were wired into a night sensor based solar powered circuit. It blinks from one bulb to another. The wood was salvaged from old deck wood.

What can I say, the pieces of the puzzle where there for me to put together and I had to do it; to make this do not cross sign. It kind of reminds me of a windmill sometimes too.

I mean, what the heck, it’s better than a lawn gnome. I mean who want a gnome on your lawn, right. There evil twisted face little creatures with an apparent mal intent. They should be outlaw all together.

God Bless,

Thomas Paul Murphy