Hey, Wake UP!

Here is yet another trip down memory lane:

An enormous red oak tree we sawed up back in 2000. Good times.

I still have the truck.

We saw Kodo together - thing is, you don't so much hear Kodo as feel the drumming reverberating in your chest. Also good times.

PLAY IT LOUD!

Edit: Here is a picture of a djembe I turned out of that massive red oak. I have never put a head on it, for reasons. I also made some giant taiko drums out of yellow pine trees that were blown over in hurricane Fran in 1996, but I can't find any pictures of them. 

Edit.2 - perhaps this will clarify the confusion:

That is my dog standing next to the red oak djembe shell. 

What is good in life, Sixty?

To buy and sell, to create and clean up, to warm oneself by the fire, to feel the warmth of the sun, to work and to walk, to meet and greet dogs, to spend time with a 15 year old dog who knows what is good in life, and to see what beauty nature holds and to be here enjoying the day.

I have also watched way too many teevee shows. Some have great visual effects, excellent production values, but the story telling is so bad it makes the shows unwatchable. I want to watch muh stories but they really drag on way too long. On a more cheerful note, here is the third of three great composers born in 1685 - talk about an alignment of stars!

Handel, low and slow. 1685 strikes again.

Germination

A few years ago lightning struck my neighbor's giant red oak tree. It had to be taken down as it loomed over the house and it was shedding limbs. The tree guys did a remarkable job limbing it and getting the log on the ground. And there it was, over 10 tons of sound red oak. I did what I could to make the most of the situation - sawed off all the callouses that had grown over limb stumps, sawed up some of the smaller branches into bowl blanks. But the prize was the butt end of the log - close to 6 feet in diameter. I took my biggest saw and cut some quarter sawn slabs out of it. It was very dangerous sawing as the tip of the bar was buried in the log while I was ripping out the pieces. Kickback was always a possibility, and while other than one real good bruise I managed to get 'er done without injury. I didn't die.

My dog looking watchful beside the downed tree:

A bowl I made from a callous, detail showing Starry Night swirls:

I hauled the slabs home and after letting them dry for a few years I started making things. First table was based on an idea I developed playing with blocks:

That table consists of three live edge slabs held together with domino floating tenons.

Recently I had another idea - a bit more high style. Who knows where ideas come from - perhaps they sprout like red oak acorns. 

The top has waves on both faces, the base has tapered legs, square in section, that flare out at 8 degrees in the elevation view and 6 degrees when viewed from the end of the table. Medullary rays are prominent on the top, and the top measures 19-1/2" in width by 32" long.      

There is much more to this story, obviously, but I was reading some letters to the editor in an old woodworking magazine and a guy was complaining about someone stealing his design for a 4 legged stool with a rectangular top. Yeah, okay bub - you were the first guy to ever build one of those in the history of furniture making. The idea for the top of this table came from several sources, but this one is different in that I milled the top out of one thick slab of wood. Other, similar tops were glued up from smaller pieces and the wave patterns were very different. Take that, other furniture makers - I can hear your laminations from here.

But the real point of this story is that from the loss of one tree can come many useful objects that will last for years. 

On that note...

Edit - added because edutcher mentioned it, Bou sphinx, also from 2013.