Thread: Sunday Project (not a fish story)

I'm the type of person that prefers to do things on my own if I can. If I get an idea in my head, I'll usually sit on it for awhile, try and come up with the best idea, and then put the plan in to action. Sometimes it works great on the first try, othertimes it works ok but I come up with refinements for later. This time it worked great however I do have a few things to try for the next time.

I started with a cherry log that has been seasoning out back for two years. I had it propped up off the ground. I bucked the log to 5'6" and peeled the bark. I ensured that it was up off the ground with log rounds on each side of the ends.


I snapped a chalk line down the center and scored it with the saw. If you are going to tackle bigger wood like this, you should have a saw that can handle it. Fortunately, I have several to choose from.


Once scored, I sawed all the way through it. I use a standard chain as a rip chain won't make it go much faster. I am left with two halves. One of them will be used for a later project and is in my barn to dry. The other was for the current project. I slabbed one side to a width of 3.5 inches knowing that it will vary based on the saw cut. In hindsite, I should have taken this slab off first before splitting the log down the middle. I will do it the next time. I put it in my planner with the narrow edge up. It was just wide enough to run through my planner (as planned).


Once I had smooth top side, I flipped it over and ran a pass on the planner. I quickly realized that it was not cutting correctly as the live edge was just outside of the planner knives. No big issue as I planned to have a straight edge that goes against the wall. Figure out what I am making yet? I snapped a line just inside the sap wood edge and ripped it off with my circular saw. The saw depth was all the way down. I will run this on my joiner later to get a perfectly flat and straight edge.


Now the board would go through the planner without issues. I finished the width to a size just over 2 inches. Because the moisture contect is a bit high yet, I will let it dry in the barn for a few weeks before I put a finish pass on both sides to the final width of 2 inches. I will square the back edge with the jointer and then square both ends to a finish length of 5 foot.


I'm not sure what it would cost for a piece of live edge 8/4 cherry in the store but it didn't cost me more than a pint of fuel and some labor. This will be a live edge shelf for my cabin. Now that I know I can do it, I have a few other Cherry logs that have been seasoning out back. I will use these for window ledges and other shelves. As for the other half, you will have to wait and see what I come up with for it!

Well, now you know how to do it. If you ever want to surprise her!