First turning- Stonewall Jackson's Prayer tree

[Roger Chandler]

This is the first of what will be many to follow. This is a lidded box with foot made from a small limb today. This is for the owner of the tree that allowed our club to recover the wood, and preserve its historical value.

The owner and her husband have been away this week on a cruise, and are supposed to arrive back tomorrow. We have our next "cut & haul" day beginning early on Monday. She wanted some momentos from the tree for her family, and this is the first.........we have some larger things planned, but I wanted to surprise her when she meets us on Monday and get a picture or two.

This does not have finish on it as of yet, just some shellac for a sealer, it will dry, and I will do a light sanding and put some WOP on it later this evening. The centuries old white oak has a lot of rustic character to it, so not much embellishment on this piece.

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The dimensions are 6.25 inches high and 4.25 inches wide at the lid. This will look better once the finish is applied, but thought I should post the very first turning on the Stonewall Jackson Prayer tree project of Woodturners of the Virginias and the first will certainly go to the very nice lady who has such a love for this old historic tree.

I turned the lower part on a mini lathe at our club shop this morning, and decided this afternoon to put a lid on it, here at home on my lathe. Getting it all situated on a jam chuck was a bit tedious, but it worked.

[charlie knighton]

Roger,

nicely done, i like the way you have the heartwood on both the foot and the lid, pretty cool

i know you said you are going to put more finish on it, but to me it is fine the way it is , good oak

[Dennis Simmons]

This is nice. How do you plan to document, the heritage of this wood, that has lived through, so much history?

[Roger Chandler]

This is nice. How do you plan to document, the heritage of this wood, that has lived through, so much history?

Dennis,

As we recover the wood, we are marking it with an appropriate mark, and that will identify it until we can get to turning,........the wood will be given out to those who have been placed on the "official registry" of turners that are members of the club, and they have to agree to the terms of the agreement the club has with the owner. Each turner will sign the turning with a particular identifier along with their names.

The club will have an official brochure printed up with the historical info on it, and each piece, large or small will have an accompanying brochure with it for the purchaser.

We are photographing and archiving this project, and we will ask every turner to submit a photo to the club archives and keep one for their own record. Every piece submitted for the museums and other venues will have to be submitted to a jury process before it is accepted to go out...........we hope to maintain the authenticity and the historical significance of this historical wood this way, and any piece without the signature of a turner not on the official registry will be considered a forgery.


We will also be posting to our website a page with the historical information, and other related items in the near future.

[Scott Hackler]

Roger, I wonder if you had thought about having a custom wood branding iron made to "brand" every piece, besides the artist's signature? I could see a small emblem or such made into the branding iron head, that would be the size of a quarter or so. Branding this emblem into every piece would be a neat way to permanently ID them as part of this tree and make them all unique to this "collection". After all the turnings are complete, maybe a ceremony where the stamp is destroyed.

just a thought.....

[Tim Thiebaut]

Nice box Roger, and what a great piece of history. I was wondering how you all were going to keep track of things as well, sounds like you all have thought long and hard about how to keep things square.

[Dennis Simmons]

Stonewall got his name in a battle, because he was positioned, on a ridge with his men, some general said look at him , sitting there like a stone wall, I would like to think he, and his men were praying!
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/civil-war-pictures/battle/bull-run/stonewall-jackson-name.htm

I think your project is very worth while.

[Baxter Smith]

Nice box Roger. I am sure it will be appreciated!

[Roger Chandler]

Thanks Baxter and thanks Tim,

This centuries old white oak is going to have some really gnarly pieces and it is very rustic in a lot of what I have seen so far......I think there will be parts of the tree that may have some exceptional grain as well.

This box from a small limb, just was to get the process started, and get a momento in the hands of the lady who loves this tree.......she also has family members and even some grandchildren who want a turning.....so we will have more to come their way.

I guess the gnarly should be described as "character" in the wood...........I know it just is not as pretty as claro walnut, but it is pretty for its historical significance and it is what it is ............a centuries old white oak.

[John Keeton]

Nice work, Roger, and a great beginning of many historic turnings yet to come. Nice gift, as well.

[Roger Chandler]

Roger, I wonder if you had thought about having a custom wood branding iron made to "brand" every piece, besides the artist's signature? I could see a small emblem or such made into the branding iron head, that would be the size of a quarter or so. Branding this emblem into every piece would be a neat way to permanently ID them as part of this tree and make them all unique to this "collection". After all the turnings are complete, maybe a ceremony where the stamp is destroyed.

just a thought.....

Scott,

That very thing was something I was musing over earlier today........I think that would be something that would help the authenticity issue a good bit.

I suppose one would have to draw up a sketch and send it to one of the makers of the branding irons to see if they could duplicate the "logo" or whatever mark was decided upon.

[Roger Chandler]

Here is a link to our club web page........our webmaster just uploaded some information about this project.........it will be added to and updated .........this is just the beginning.......

http://www.woodturnersofthevirginias.org/index.htm