bullet Box

[Christopher Pine]

I was working on a small box making it from some sycamore and walnut scraps I had and was lookinf nice I thought. I planed the wood down in my planer and found a little surprise. A bullett in the sycamore. now it is a nice profile of the bullett in the lid of the box. You can see pictures of the box here:
http://tinyurl.com/3hnak
The last several photo's in the album.
Makes an interesting conversation piece.
Chris Pine

[Dick Parr]

Nice looking boxs. :) Too bad about the planner blades. :eek:

[Lee Schierer]

Believe it or not, this is a fairly common occurance. I first saw it happen in a gun cabinet my father was making 20 years ago. He ran a piece of walnut through a planer and saw shiney spots in the wood. They turned out to be lead BB's from a shot gun.

About 10 years ago I was making the top half of a china cabinet for my mother and again found leab BB's in the walnut I was cutting. SInce my Dad's wood came from Maryland and mine came from NW PA, the were most likely not from teh same tree.

About 7 years ago, I was running some rough cut oak through a planer and found not one, but three lead bullets, about 30 caliber, embedded in the oak. Apparently someone was target shooting with a pistol as they looked like the old "wad cutter" bullets.

Fortunately lead doesn't hurt planer or saw blades.

I've encountered other woodworkers with similar experiences.

Lee

[Jim Becker]

Lee's correct about it being fairly common...I've found lead shot in some of the poplar off our property. Fortunately, lead is very soft and the planer blades didn't blink, although I wouldn't want to be putting a lot of it through!

That said, your bullet example is very nice since it's a larger feature and really makes the box special. I'm glad you left it in.

[Chris Padilla]

Chris, that is a nice touch leaving the bullet in! I like it, very cool. What might be interesting is an attempt to date the bullet. Any chance it could be a really old one? Now that would be too cool for school! :)

[Bob Smalser]

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/4110272/51336920.jpg

Just make sure the nail that held up the target still isn't in there...

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/4110272/51335796.jpg

[Christopher Pine]

Well dating the bullet I have no idea. It does have a lead center with a brass or copper outer shell... would this be a hollow point bullet?
Chris

[Jason Roehl]

Well dating the bullet I have no idea. It does have a lead center with a brass or copper outer shell... would this be a hollow point bullet?
Chris Not necessarily. Pretty much all FMJ (Full Metal Jacket, or "Ball" in the military) is a lead core with a copper surround, or "jacket". Sometimes the end of the tail is covered, sometimes not. Some manufacturers have messed around with different configurations, but that's the most common. Hollow points basically are an FMJ bullet with a hole drilled in the point--you would be able to see the lead/copper layers, then. The hollow point is so that when the bullet impacts the target, it will "mushroom"--the tip will expand/flatten--thereby transferring more, if not, all, of the energy to the target (by coming to a halt in the target), rather than piercing clean through it and exiting with some of its kinetic energy. Thus, hollow points are often said to have more "knockdown" power.

Based on the photos to which you linked, I'd say it wasn't a hollow point bullet. I've dug a few of those out of trees--they generally aren't recognizable after they've hit the tree, and I see a clean circle to yours.

Here's a photo of 2 .45ACP rounds (for a .45 semi-auto pistol). The one on the left is the standard FMJ/Ball. The one on the right is a variation of a hollow point (it has a "post" added in the center of the hollow for a little more penetration), a Federal HydraShok round.