A shelf made from VERY old reclaimed Fir

[Frank Pellow]

Note that there is an aspect of scroll sawing in this project, but that aspect is small.


A couple of weeks ago, my friend Rod Sheridan dropped off this section of a Fir beam:


 
He obtained the beam from which this was cut from a guy who has a lot of very old Fir wood recovered when the Gooderham and Worts distillery in downtown Toronto was re-purposed a few years ago. I have been thinking about how to best use this “gem†for a couple of weeks waiting for inspiration.

The inspiration came to me on Wednesday. Rheault Distillery is a brand enterprise located on the road that leads from Hearst Ontario to Lake Pivabiska (the location of Pellow’s Island). Their most popular product is Loon Vodka and I have cut down some of the Loon Vodka bottles to make beer steins. I decided to use the wood from a very old distillery to make a shelf to hold a couple of steins from a very new distillery.

The first step was to re-saw the block in order to obtain a couple of planks for the shelf:
 
 

My bandsaw made somewhat rough cuts; therefore, I used a planer/thicknesser, to smooth the cut surfaces:

I decided to decorate the shelf with a ‘Pike in a Leaf’ that I cut out of 6mm thick Baltic Birch plywood on my scroll saw. I thank Sheila Landry for the design of the scrolled piece.  The pike is appropriate because the shelf will be hung at our cabin on Pellow's Island in Lake Pivabiska and there are lots and lots of Northern Pike in Lake Pivabiska.

In the photo to the below, I am testing one of several potential arrangements of the shelf parts:

 

I decided on an arrangement where the freshly paned sides were on the outside and the weathered sides were on the inside.

The support pieces for the shelf were glued together:



Then, the top was attached using glue and Miller dowels:

Note that no screws or nails were used in the shelf.

Several coats of Tremclad clear satin spray were applied to all surfaces.

Next is a photo of the back of the shelf:




Following are a couple of views of the shelf after it has been mounted to a wall:

 

 
 

Edited September 10, 2016 by Frank Pellow

[Lucky2]

Frank, no doubt it's a good looking project, it's just that I can't see them well enough to know. The pictures won't enlarge, could you reload them so that they will?

Len

Edited September 10, 2016 by Lucky2

[oldhudson]

Excellent project. Creative and well executed. I'd love to stop by for a beer sometime. You should do a another post on how you converted the vodka bottles to mugs, please. 

[Scrolling Steve]

You did good Frank !.....Love the finish !

[Frank Pellow]

Len (Lucky2).  The thumbnails at the bottom of the post do expand.  I can't seem to get the embedded ones to expand.  Can someone help?

[amazingkevin]

Note that there is an aspect of scroll sawing in this project, but that aspect is small.

 

 

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Rod Sheridan dropped off this section of a Fir beam:

 

 

He obtained the beam from which this was cut from a guy who has a lot of very old Fir wood recovered when the Gooderham and Worts distillery in downtown Toronto was re-purposed a few years ago. I have been thinking about how to best use this “gem†for a couple of weeks waiting for inspiration.

 

The inspiration came to me on Wednesday. Rheault Distillery is a brand enterprise located on the road that leads from Hearst Ontario to Lake Pivabiska (the location of Pellow’s Island). Their most popular product is Loon Vodka and I have cut down some of the Loon Vodka bottles to make beer steins. I decided to use the wood from a very old distillery to make a shelf to hold a couple of steins from a very new distillery.

 

The first step was to re-saw the block in order to obtain a couple of planks for the shelf:

 

 

 

My bandsaw made somewhat rough cuts; therefore, I used a planer/thicknesser, to smooth the cut surfaces:

 

I decided to decorate the shelf with a ‘Pike in a Leaf’ that I cut out of 6mm thick Baltic Birch plywood on my scroll saw. I thank Sheila Landry for the design of the scrolled piece.  The pike is appropriate because the shelf will be hung at our cabin on Pellow's Island in Lake Pivabiska and there are lots and lots of Northern Pike in Lake Pivabiska.

 

In the photo to the below, I am testing one of several potential arrangements of the shelf parts:

 

 

I decided on an arrangement where the freshly paned sides were on the outside and the weathered sides were on the inside.

 

The support pieces for the shelf were glued together:

 

 

Then, the top was attached using glue and Miller dowels:

 

Note that no screws or nails were used in the shelf.

 

Several coats of Tremclad clear satin spray were applied to all surfaces.

 

Next is a photo of the back of the shelf:

 

 

 

Following are a couple of views of the shelf after it has been mounted to a wall:

 

 

 

that's something to be real proud of! What a saw you have!Your one creative scroller,Thanks for showing us your skills!

[Frank Pellow]

oldhudson: Excellent project. Creative and well executed. I'd love to stop by for a beer sometime. You should do a another post on how you converted the vodka bottles to mugs, please.

 

 

Thanks Berry.  I'm will soon be trying our a different technique for cutting down the vodka bottles.  I will see how that works out before posting anything.
 

[rjR]

Very Nice!

 

Bottle cutting is best done after the emptying process has waited a while and the fumes have cleared! From both bottle and cutter!

 

I like the reusing of anything!  The blue bottles that hit our recycle have intrigued me; but, I have not yet tried the water and oil with a

hot iron trick, but will before the end of the year.

 

RV'n and photography are calling for the next few weeks at the minimum.

 

Almost forgot to mention for the people not familiar with Northern Pike!  Think of a miniature alligator with fins and an EXTREMELY BAD attitude!   Years ago I caught one in ND that the lure was bigger than the PIKE; but, it bit it anyway! They even bite the fisher/person on shore if they get a chance! My one son still has a scar from about 35 years ago to prove it!

 

Garrison Dam is a place the ND game and fish siens them for egg harvest and I was there with a game warden decades back and some of the big ones were almost 7 feet long! Very easy 6-1/2+ feet and mouth almost 10 inches wide.

Edited September 13, 2016 by rjR

[Frank Pellow]

Ralph (Zen Scroller), It's not 7 feet long, but the pike that my brother-in-law Jeff caught at our island is certainly BIG.