Hello there, my fellow artisans and handcrafts enthusiasts!
Welcome back to the workshop! We are here to see another kind of project I got from a friend. A Professor gave me this piece of purpleheart. It is a tough wood and she wanted to see what could be made out of it. Her idea is having it to adorn part of her house. So, I got to think and figuring the shape of the whole board as a whole. There are various aspects to address during the making of this project. Tag along!
Let's get to it!
Cleaning
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The wood loses its deep purple color when it remains unworked and gathering both dust and being exposed to air. The first step is using the hand plane to remove the uneven parts of each broad and narrow faces of the board. While we are at it, we can see the process of oxidation of the wood that gives it its color. The more we shave from the surface, the more we can see the purple hue.
Once we have the smooth faces, we can start by cutting some parts to give it a different look. The shape that we are trying to achieve here is some sort of asymmetrical gravestone. That's why we make the cut with the jigsaw and rounded a part that had a very rough cut. We also use the router to round some corners and also to create a different level at the borders.
Design
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Moving on, and inspired the some videos about making cutting boards, we are adding some holes to this one. They will go in opposite corners and also be of different sizes. The whole idea worked better than expected as we'll get some interesting comments about the semblance of such a feature once the board is handed over.
To make these holes we need to measure the diameter of our circular cutters and make sure there will be enough room to have the inside the body of the board and not breaking anything. Once this is done, we can start drilling them. This task needs to be done in stages as the wood is too hard for the kind of cutters available and the thickness of the wood is also too much to be handled by drilling from one face to the other. We need to flip the board at some point and work from the other side.
Details
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The last bits of details where made by taking some inspiration from zentagle art. You might have seen the drawing of patterns as a form of art therapy. The initial idea didn't work, but using the router and another bit, we were able to crate these wavy carvings going from one hole to the other. Then, we just needed to clean a bit at each end of the lines plus the holes to make it a better surface.
No project would be done without a lot of sanding. And the last part of it was all about applying oil everyday for one week until the board was handed over.
Her owner told me the whole design of the board reminds her of a species of fish that has a fake eye on the other end of its body that is used to keep predators at bay. So you can guess if she actually liked the design.
That was all for now! Having projects that are far from luthierie is always interesting. Making boards seems to be an interesting way of woodworking in other countries. However, I'd definitely try to do another project like this if there's a chance. For now, thanks for reading. See you next time!
Photos 📷: Redmi Note 13
Thumbnail 🖼️: Canva.
Editing 🎬:Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
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