Latest From the Shop, More Turned Birdhouses

For various reasons I haven’t had much time in the woodshop this last month.

But I did find time to turn a few bowls and a number of birdhouses.

Not as many as I would have liked, but a few.

These are a little different from the last batch.  I got in a shipment of exotic woods that I felt would make unique and interesting accents. Also, I managed to procure the only three remaining bottles of friction polish in Alaska last month (a shellac/hard wax finish, that is extremely flammable in liquid form and therefore rarely shipped to Alaska because it has to come via ocean in a HAZMAT container, making it very expensive) and that was the perfect finish for some of the accent pieces. So I did some experimenting…and I’m quite happy with the results.  The birdhouses with the glossy finish are done in the friction polish, the rest are finished in orange or walnut oil and beeswax.

Note: Astute readers will notice that most of these houses do not, in fact, have perches.  That’s because a bunch of bird people yelled at me about the perches on my previous birdhouses (I was going to say they got their feathers ruffled, but that just seemed liked a cheap pun so I didn’t say it.  You’re welcome) – apparently the prevailing opinion is that wild birds in general don’t need perches, and that predator birds use the perches as a forward attack base to loot the nest (eating the eggs and/or young chicks).  So I left the perches off most of this batch. 

A number of these are for sale.  They’re marked along with price (Note: these are a bit more expensive than the last batch because of the time and effort involved in their creation and because of the cost of materials).  As always, if you’d like one, so note in the comments. Indicate which one you want by NUMBER. First to comment gets the piece.  I will make updates to the post indicating who gets what.  PayPal is the preferred method of payment. (Please do NOT attempt to transfer funds until you receive a confirmation email from me. Really).

Shipping and Handling is $10 for all pieces.

 

You can click on each picture to embiggen it.

 

#24  American Walnut and Rosewood. (Sold)

 

#25  American Walnut, Orange Agate, and Tigerwood (Sold)

 

#26 American Walnut, Rosewood and Orange Agate (Sold)

 

# 27  American Walnut, Orange Agate and Birch (Available $70)

 

#28 American Walnut, Alaskan Birch Heartwood, Orange Agate (Sold $70)

 

#29 American Walnut, Tulipwood, and Brazilwood (Sold $60)

 

#30 Alaskan Birch, Tigerwood, Cocobolo (Sold $60)

 

#31 Birdseye Maple, Brazilwood, Cocobolo (Available $70)

 

#32 Black Walnut (half sapwood, half heartwood), Brazilwood, Orange Agate (Available $60)

 

#33 American Red Oak, Alaskan Birch, Black Walnut (Available $60)

 

 

These last three, #34-#36 are larger and heavier than the previous pieces.  They are made from Black Locust and I am particularly happy with how these came out.  You can click on each picture for a high resolution enlargement, depending on your bandwidth they made take a minute to load.

 

#34 Black Locust, Tigerwood, Cocobolo (Sold $80)

 

#35 Black Locust, Tigerwood, Cocobolo (Available $80)

 

#36 Black Locust, Brazilian Rosewood (Available $80)

 

 

I am, of course, making more.