2015 Cheese Boards are Ready - Whew!

The cheese boards that everyone has been asking for over the past year are finally done. These boards are made from a variety of local and exotic woods I've purchased over the past 2 years. The boards are sealed with 5 coats of food safe finish. All boards are about 15" long, 2" thick, and vary slightly in width. They make great display pieces for appetizers and blocks of cheese and crackers.

How to claim/purchase: As in previous years, the boards are numbered below and I open up the claiming process to anyone who is interested in them. I charge $50 per board and all you have to do is send me an email to buddie.chris@gmail.com to claim the board(s) you want. In order to keep it fair, the first email in my inbox gets the specific board (you have to be quick on the draw). I will email you back and let you know whether it's available. I will do my best to mark the boards as sold in the descriptions below to avoid confusion.

Thanks for stopping by to check them out.

If you aren't local and able to arrange a pickup, please ask me about shipping options.

SOLD 1. Species include: Black walnut, hard maple, padauk, and cherry.

2. Species include: Tiger wood, maple, black walnut, cherry and bubinga.

SOLD 3. Species include: Peruvian walnut, Bolivian cherry, hard maple, bubinga and black walnut.

4. Species include: Tiger wood, black walnut, Peruvian walnut and hard maple.

SOLD 5. Species include: Black walnut, hard maple, padauk, and cherry.

SOLD 6. Species include: Cherry, black walnut, hard maple, bubinga, and Peruvian walnut.

SOLD 7. Species include: Cherry, padauk, hard maple, Peruvian walnut and black walnut.

SOLD 8. Species include: Bolivian cherry, bubinga, hard maple, tiger wood and Peruvian walnut.

SOLD 9. Species include: Black walnut, hard maple, tiger wood, and cherry.

SOLD 10. Species include: Black walnut, hard maple, tiger wood, cherry and blood wood.

SOLD 11. Species include: Cherry, hard maple, black walnut and Bolivian cherry.

SOLD 12. Species include: Cherry, hard maple, tiger wood, and black walnut.

SOLD 13. Species include: Cherry, padauk, hard maple, and black walnut.

SOLD 14. Species include: Hard maple, black walnut, padauk, cherry, and tiger wood.

SOLD 15. Species include: Peruvian walnut, hard maple, bubinga, Bolivian cherry and tiger wood.

SOLD 16. Species include: Tiger wood, hard maple, Peruvian walnut, padauk and cherry.

SOLD 17. Species include: Peruvian walnut, hard maple, black walnut, Bolivian cherry and padauk.

SOLD 18. Species include: Black walnut, hard maple, Peruvian walnut, tiger wood, and padauk.

SOLD 19. Species include: Cherry, hard maple, black walnut, tiger wood, and Bolivian cherry.

SOLD 20. Species include: Peruvian walnut, hard maple, Bolivian cherry, and padauk.

SOLD 21. Species include: Cherry, padauk, hard maple, black walnut and tiger wood.

SOLD 22. Species include: Bubinga, Bolivian cherry, tiger wood and black walnut.

SOLD 23. Species include: Cherry, tiger wood, hard maple, black walnut and padauk.

SOLD 24. Species include: Black walnut, Bolivian cherry, padauk, cherry, Peruvian walnut and hard maple.

Christmas 2014 Bowls

Here is a group of bowls that came from local McLean and Vienna trees.

The series of weeping cherry bowls came from Vienna, VA during a snowstorm a few years ago. Riley and I ventured onto unplowed roads to pick up some monster rounds and load them into the truck. Given the effort and back-breaking deadlifts, I was hoping that they'd turn out this gorgeous. I'm really happy with them. Amazing color and grain swirl.

The maple bowls came from a local neighborhood tree that a company was taking down. I tried something new with them. They are finished with a triple dye technique. Black dye, followed by teal, followed by yellow. The result is a really cool green that has an iridescent quality. Really fun finish technique that I'm sure to try again with some future bowls.

I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labor over the past two years.

Let me know as soon as possible if you want to claim one for your own. Happy holidays to all of my biggest fans.

1. Weeping cherry bowl - 9.5" x 3" - $50

2. SOLD Weeping cherry bowl - 7.5" x 2.5" - $40

3. SOLD Weeping cherry bowl - 6.5" x 3.5" - $40

4. SOLD Weeping cherry bowl - 5.5" x 3.5" - $35

5. SOLD Weeping cherry bowl - 9.75" x 3.5" - $50

6. SOLD Weeping cherry bowl - 7.5" x 2.5" - $40

7. SOLD Weeping cherry mini bowl - 5.25" x 2" - $30

8. Triple dyed maple mini bowl - 5.25" x 2" - $30

9. Triple dyed maple mini bowl - 5" x 2" - $30

10. Triple dyed maple mini bowl - 5.5" x 2" - $30

11. Triple dyed maple bowl - 7.75" x 2.5" - $40

12. Triple dyed maple bowl - 9" x 4" - $50

As with my cutting boards, please check dimensions before buying. First email claiming each bowl gets the bowl. I will do my best to mark these as sold to avoid confusion.

Shoot me an email, Facebook message, or text message.

Here fishy fishy fishy

I've been busy in the shop, trying my hand at making fishing lures. Really fun project that has kept me busy over the past few months. I'm hoping that I'm at the point where I've learned all of the beginner's mistakes the hard way. Plenty of flaws in the finishes, but still lifelike enough to catch lazy fish.

A few of them have actually caught fish, and I guess that's all I could ask for.

December 2012 Bowls - Maple and Cherry

I finished up the year by turning a number of maple and cherry bowls for family and friends. I'm really loving the process and playing around with different shapes, sanding techniques and finishing styles. The bows are a lot of work, but reveal new character and hidden gems within the wood grain throughout the process.

I have also spent the past few months cutting up blocks of wood with my chainsaw and storing them (green) in the back of my garage. When time permits, I pull one out and true it up on the bandsaw and rough turn it on the lathe. What I'm left with is a "green" bowl (not dry) that is about 1" thick and will be stored again in the back of the garage for about a year to dry out naturally. Wood that dries too quickly or unevenly tends to crack and split and quickly turns into a scrap piece for the fireplace.

Below are some photos of two bowls I turned and finished. The first is made from a chunk of maple and the second, a nice piece of cherry. They are both about 8" in diameter.

Maple bowl with nice beetle holes.

Cherry bowl with some black lines running through the grain.

Maple and cherry bowls for comparison.