What We're Making

[ERD50]

Thanks Exit. I didn't take too many photos, but here's the process:

1. Cut scraps
2. Glue up small scraps to 1.5” thick. Strips need to be same length. Random width.
3. Plane/sand strips
4. Glue up / bar clamp 1.5” strips into 12” wide boards. All strips need to be same length. Make several boards with different patterns.
5. Plane/sand strips
6. Crosscut 12” wide boards to 1.5” wide strips, 1.5” thick.
7. Mix up crosscut strips into a variety. Turn strips sideways so end grain is up and glue together. 1.5”thick x 12” wide x16”(or 20”) long
8. Sand
9. Trim edges, Cut juice groove and handles
10. Finish with multiple coats of mineral oil, then beeswax.

Beautiful! You aren't actually going to cut things on those are you? If I were capable of such nice work, I'd have to reserve those for serving cheese slices, bread and crackers and such. I'd hate to see a knife edge, or juicy food touch them.

Question on the sanding - I would think that sanding would drive the darker sanding dust into the lighter pieces. How do you keep the light pieces clean?

-ERD50

 

[Ronstar]

Beautiful! You aren't actually going to cut things on those are you? If I were capable of such nice work, I'd have to reserve those for serving cheese slices, bread and crackers and such. I'd hate to see a knife edge, or juicy food touch them.

Question on the sanding - I would think that sanding would drive the darker sanding dust into the lighter pieces. How do you keep the light pieces clean?

-ERD50

Thanks - These should hold up somewhat ok to knife blades. I read that wood end grain splits when a knife hits it, but recoils after the cut.

Good question on the sanding. Th light pieces are hard maple, and the darker sanding dust doesn't penetrate it.

 

[MRG]

Thanks - These should hold up somewhat ok to knife blades. I read that wood end grain splits when a knife hits it, but recoils after the cut.

Good question on the sanding. Th light pieces are hard maple, and the darker sanding dust doesn't penetrate it.

That makes sense. Unless you hit your food with a six pound splitting maul the end grain should be just fine.

FYI awesome details in the boards.

 

[Exit 2024]

Ronstar, I am very impressed

 

[Walt34]

Very nice cutting boards, worthy of hanging on the wall!

 

[RobbieB]

I did some wood working too, a dog food bin;

A 24 pound sack of food fits perfectly;

 

[davemartin88]

Reall like the cutting boards, have done some similar ones and they are real conversation pieces. Like the dog food container too, how,is,the lettering done? Is it inlaid?

 

[RobbieB]

Just stenciled, masked and spray painted and hand paint in the stencil gaps after.

Then varnish over again so it won't chip off.

 

[Ronstar]

Nice looking dog food bin, RobbieB. Lettering adds a nice touch. I'm going to try the stencil thing one of these days.

 

[Ronstar]

Whipped up a little vase on the lathe. European walnut. The hibiscus flower is a little big for it.

 

[davemartin88]

Nice vase, something to be said for the immediate gratification that comes from a small project on the lathe!

 

[Major Tom]

Great craftsmanship Ronstar. Thank you for posting!

 

[Badger]

I enjoyed seeing your beautiful wood creations and watching the video Ronstar. Thanks for posting them. I always thought it would be great fun to use lots of power tools and make useful items out of wood.

Cheers!

 

[Idnar7]

Ronstar, ever thought of making an ornamental baseball bat? Secret wish of mine to do.

 

[LitGal]

15 lbs. of pulled pork. Will host 5 lunches and 1 dinner with friends and relatives in the Airbnb apt. I'll rent in home town this week. I'll buy some corn on the cob, open some bags of chips, and defrost the cookies and cheesecake I bought at GFS. Then we'll all just kick back and enjoy..........the shores of Lake Ontario.

 

[Ronstar]

15 lbs. of pulled pork. Will host 5 lunches and 1 dinner with friends and relatives in the Airbnb apt. I'll rent in home town this week. I'll buy some corn on the cob, open some bags of chips, and defrost the cookies and cheesecake I bought at GFS. Then we'll all just kick back and enjoy..........the shores of Lake Ontario.

We'll need some photos of that!

 

[Ronstar]

Ronstar, ever thought of making an ornamental baseball bat? Secret wish of mine to do.

I only have a mini lathe - so I can only make a mini-bat. But I'm like you - it is something that I would like to do.

 

[LitGal]

We'll need some photos of that!

Egad! That would require that I learn how to.....

1. get pictures off my phone or camera and on to my computer;

2. get the photos somehow off a file and into er.org;

3. call my dear 17-year-old nephew in Northern Calif. to explain how to do these things;

4. use up about an hour of his time (since I am tech-challenged);

5. then, since he just started taking US History AP this week, I will have to live with the guilt of dragging him away from his studies (which he would be thrilled to have me do);

6. then I will worry that he won't do well writing his first practice in-class essay.


Yes, these are the foibles of the technologically challenged.

I might do better to just report if folks enjoyed my pulled pork by the lake!

 

[aja8888]

Egad! That would require that I learn how to.....

1. get pictures off my phone or camera and on to my computer;

2. get the photos somehow off a file and into er.org;

3. call my dear 17-year-old nephew in Northern Calif. to explain how to do these things;

4. use up about an hour of his time (since I am tech-challenged);

5. then, since he just started taking US History AP this week, I will have to live with the guilt of dragging him away from his studies (which he would be thrilled to have me do);

6. then I will worry that he won't do well writing his first practice in-class essay.


Yes, these are the foibles of the technologically challenged.

I might do better to just report if folks enjoyed my pulled pork by the lake!

Instead of bothering the 17 year old, just find some local 10 year old boy or girl and they will do it for you.

 

[LitGal]

Instead of bothering the 17 year old, just find some local 10 year old boy or girl and they will do it for you.

Used to know some in my old neighborhood. So I will need to make some new friends, who could probably do all this in a jiffy (rather than spend hours teaching this old dog new tricks).

But Dear Nephew often does have the patience to teach me. I will just need to interrupt him later.....

 

[ERD50]

15 lbs. of pulled pork. Will host 5 lunches and 1 dinner with friends and relatives in the Airbnb apt. I'll rent in home town this week. I'll buy some corn on the cob, open some bags of chips, and defrost the cookies and cheesecake I bought at GFS. Then we'll all just kick back and enjoy..........the shores of Lake Ontario.

Hmmm, I am dying for some pulled pork. We need to have a crowd to justify cooking up a whole shoulder, and we have a niece (and her husband) who for some [edit] in-explicable reason, say they do not like the taste of any pork product. So family gatherings do not involve pork

But I've cooked it up for other crowds, including my beer club, and it always turns out great. DW will cook it sometimes for her PADS volunteer work (cooking and serving for homeless people), she just does it overnight in the oven on low, and that turns out great as well (even w/o the grill smoke - not ideal, but still very, very good).

Despite my being able to do pulled pork, I have had zero success with brisket. I swear I follow all the rules set forth by people in the South, mine turns out dry and bitter. Three strikes and I'm out! And I've probably had 4 strikes.

-ERD50

 

[LitGal]

Hmmm, I am dying for some pulled pork. We need to have a crowd to justify cooking up a whole shoulder, and we have a niece (and her husband) who for some explicable reason, say they do not like the taste of any pork product. So family gatherings do not involve pork

But I've cooked it up for other crowds, including my beer club, and it always turns out great. DW will cook it sometimes for her PADS volunteer work (cooking and serving for homeless people), she just does it overnight in the oven on low, and that turns out great as well (even w/o the grill smoke - not ideal, but still very, very good).

Despite my being able to do pulled pork, I have had zero success with brisket. I swear I follow all the rules set forth by people in the South, mine turns out dry and bitter. Three strikes and I'm out! And I've probably had 4 strikes.

-ERD50

You have a lot more experience in southern cooking than I do. A friend just gave me an easy recipe lately for pulled pork in the crock pot. So I picked up two 7-8 lb. pork loins at GFS, cut them up and cooked all the meat in three crock pots. In each crock pot, I put 2 T. of liquid smoke in the bottom, added the meat, poured chicken broth halfway up the meat, then covered all the meat with 2-3 cups of applesauce.

In 7-8 hours, I poured the contents of each crock pot through a colander (so all the broth drained into a bowl), then moved the chunks of meat to a large bowl to cool.

Then shredded it all, poured the broth back in, then added 2-3 c. BBQ sauce per crock pot of pork.

Very easy. And it tastes like somebody with a southern touch made it, not me!!

 

[ERD50]

You have a lot more experience in southern cooking than I do. A friend just gave me an easy recipe lately for pulled pork in the crock pot. So I picked up two 7-8 lb. pork loins at GFS, cut them up and cooked all the meat in three crock pots. In each crock pot, I put 2 T. of liquid smoke in the bottom, added the meat, poured chicken broth halfway up the meat, then covered all the meat with 2-3 cups of applesauce.

In 7-8 hours, I poured the contents of each crock pot through a colander (so all the broth drained into a bowl), then moved the chunks of meat to a large bowl to cool.

Then shredded it all, poured the broth back in, then added 2-3 c. BBQ sauce per crock pot of pork.

Very easy. And it tastes like somebody with a southern touch made it, not me!!

I'm guessing that pork shoulder has a wide tolerance, since it always seem to work for me! I'm sure that hitting the mark exactly makes it extra special good, but so far, even lame attempts have turned out very good.

BBQ sauce might be more of a Kansas/Midwest thing than Southern though, but I'm agnostic - it's all good! And the crock pot approach is probably similar to DW's using the oven overnight.

Our Carolina in-laws serve the pulled pork on white bread buns with cole-slaw on top. That works!

I see those big briskets at Costco - darn I want to try again, but I feel like they are just mocking me!

I was able to find smaller sizes of pork belly at a local Polish mart, about 2.5 # instead of 5-6 # at Costco. I cooked that up, turned out OK I though - but cold it was fantastic as a taco filling.

-ERD50

 

[Just_Steve]

I see those big briskets at Costco - darn I want to try again, but I feel like they are just mocking me!
-ERD50

When it comes to brisket for me bigger is not better. I much prefer smoking two smaller ones then a big one. Cutting a big one in half and calling it two small does not work.

If you are not venting enough smoke it will cause your meat to taste bitter.
Bathe the meat with smoke don't let smoke stagnate.

 

[davemartin88]

Dyed some of our white alpaca roving this afternoon using acid dye and the sun to set the dye. Some clouds rolled in so only 8 of the 12 jars were set but we have 4 that we'll finish in the oven, has to reach 185 degrees to set the dye. You can tell the dye is completely set when the dye liquid is clear as all of the pigment has transferred to the fiber. Will rinse and dry it all out tomorrow and see how it turned out. Should make some interesting yarn when spun. Here's a picture of the jars on the railing of the deck soaking up some rays!