CURLY YELLOW BIRCH

Curly yellow birch remains one of my favorite woods to work with aesthetically, however it is very hard to work. It is very dense with a grain that is hard to plane and join. I have found that keeping the edges moist with water while joining reduces chipping. Also while planing, setting the blades on the shallow side, it takes a little longer to get to the desired thickness, but chipping is kept to a minimum.
This cabinet was designed to house a roll-a-way portable bed, along with mattress and bedding.
It was anchored to the wall and as you can see on the third photo the cabinet did not have a floor, making it easier to roll on the tile floor without having to pick it up for storage.
The finish was a sprayed waterproof lacquer, not my favorite to use for it's toxicity while applying and drying, but done at the customers request. I really like to use pure tung oil, it is food safe and natural. More on tung oil later.

MAKING SHOJI

Shoji screens come from an origin in the history of Japan which no one to this date has been able to pin point. In the early days there were wooden exterior doors that had to be lifted up to be opened. Behind these doors was another door, which had wooden lattice covered with paper to let light in. By the 11th century, shoji had evolved into its present style.

These are two examples of basic shojis, handcrafted in the Japanese tradition using Port Orford Cedar, rice paper, and rice glue. However, in the stone tub above, I used plexiglass for the high humidity in this particular bath.

Shojis can be made to by-pass or slide, bi-fold, or be free-standing. The applications are endless and the structural design of each shoji can be modified to please many architectural requirements.

Many thanks to Toshio Odate for sharing his art of making shoji.

DRYING TIME

Drying time can vary depending on humidity thickness of the boards, and the type of wood. Elm being very dense takes up to a year for this 6/4 thickness. I had no idea what I was going to make with this lumber but felt that 6/4 would be versatile enough for several applications. So off to the drawing board and see what develops. This wood will dry for about a year, so more on this later.

This wood was actually cut in late spring of 2009.

MAKING LUMBER

Sawing logs with a band saw mill is not my favorite but at the time it was available and hauling the logs was but a short distance away. I had marked the logs on the end as to how I wanted them sawn but the sawyer made some changes on the second of the three logs and I ended up with checks that could have been avoided. I'll drive further next time.

IT ALL STARTS HERE

Ulmus americana, generally known as the American Elm or, less commonly, as the White Elm or Water Elm, is a species native to eastern North America, occurring from Nova Scotia west as far as British Columbia, from northern Alberta at the top of its range, south to Florida and central Texas. It is an extremely hardy tree that can withstand winter temperatures as low as −42 °C (−44 °F). Trees in areas unaffected by Dutch elm disease can live for several hundred years. The preceding statement was from Wikipedia.
This particular tree was in a neighbor's yard and wanted it cut down for firewood, but when I saw what it was, the simple act of asking to cut it down for lumber gave way to some really nice boards. During the next few posts I will take you through the process of turning this standing dead tree into a couple of unique pieces of furniture.