by Steven D. Johnson
Racine, Wisconsin

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Even More Bits & Pieces – On The Block

Click on any picture to see a larger version.

Way back, I built two natural edge coffee tables. The legs were beefy, built-up from ash stock. At some point I squared off the ends and cut those leg blanks to length, and the inch-or-so thick cut-offs had an interesting "look." I threw those cutoffs into a box and thought, "They are too pretty for the burn pile."

Figure 18 - These cut-offs had an interesting look... I saved them	Figure 19 - Okay, so you have a block of wood ... now what?

Because I had made extra legs in case I messed up in either the shaping or the joinery, I had ten cut-offs. The best nine got arranged into an interesting pattern and glued together into a block… even more interesting now, with all the opposing grain directions and patterns. But still, ash is not a great wood for an end-grain cutting block. It is too porous. So I think I will do a bit more shaping and turn this into a serving tray… perhaps round the corners, add a decorative bead, maybe rout a groove around the perimeter. With a hard built-up finish, and if I keep it away from the dishwasher, it should be nice for serving a good cup of coffee. And speaking of coffee…

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