What to do with shorts and scraps?

[Mel Fulks]

Never worked in a commercial shop that did not have some kind of standard procedure for using up small pieces of good material. Some
would tell a helper to make boxes of a size that had always been a good seller. They were stacked in the office with a cardboard sign with the
price. If there is any sure seller made of wood it’s a box.

[Doug Garson]

How many of you are in this category?

No, my door doesn't have a window.

[Rob Luter]

A solution has presented itself. It turns out the new guy at work is a bladesmith and always in need of material for knife scales. I stocked him up with some walnut, hickory, oak, cherry, alder, and curly maple. Let’s just say he’s set for the next few years.

[jack duren]

I may have some teak cutoffs...

[John K Jordan]

A solution has presented itself. It turns out the new guy at work is a bladesmith and always in need of material for knife scales. I stocked him up with some walnut, hickory, oak, cherry, alder, and curly maple. Let’s just say he’s set for the next few years.

I've found knife makers are happy to take wood few other people can use. One guy was suddenly speechless when I brought him a box of thin pieces of spalted dogwood, figured maple, holly, osage orange and cocobolo and other exotic woods.

[Justin Rapp]

Well, I used hardwoods for my smoker. But my smoker is in bad shape and needs to be replaced, and with a much smaller model. I am the only one in my house that eats meat now, so I have not lit up my smoker except for thanksgiving to smoke a turkey, which my wife also will eat. So, now i have an entire box of hickory and mixed with some other hardwoods, most of it is just pure burn cutoffs.

So, I have given up on keeping so many scraps and cutoffs unless it's really usable and it's off to the firepit. Just think, in 1 year, you will have another entire pile, or end up with 1200 pounds of it

[Ronald Blue]

A solution has presented itself. It turns out the new guy at work is a bladesmith and always in need of material for knife scales. I stocked him up with some walnut, hickory, oak, cherry, alder, and curly maple. Let’s just say he’s set for the next few years.

But next month you will need to find a new bladesmith. Cutoffs and scrap pieces multiply at a rapid rates. A couple pieces today. a bucket full tomorrow, and the corner of the shop next week. What you need is "sterile" wood so it won't multiply....

[Charles Lent]

Cutting boards, snack bowls, etc. are frequently the first use of my drops and off cuts, but you have already received suggestions for them. After making these, I still have many pieces too good, but too small to trash, so I did the following - I got a good scroll saw, and now make small Christmas gifts from those little scraps.

I use pieces of hardwood and Baltic Birch plywood scraps as small as 3/4 X 3/4 X 1 3/4". Here are a few items that I've made. In the past 17 years I have made almost 15,000 reindeer in 4 sizes, and some of the smallest sizes into ear rings, necklaces, and pins. The technique used for these is called "Compound Cutting" to produce the 3-D shapes. A face view is cut first , and then the side view is cut. Then the reindeer or ornament comes out of the center of the block of wood. Kind of a chicken in egg process. It's fun and my hardwood scrap pile, after the scroll saw, is nothing more than small kindling and chips for starting the fires in the fireplace, after this final use of my drops and off cuts. The larger ornaments in the last photo are two almost identical pieces, cut flat, and then one is inserted at 90 deg into the other with a little glue. There are many plan books available for scroll sawing, so it's easy to find patterns to cut. One benefit of cutting 3-D is that your paper patterns that get glued to the wood, all falls off with the scrap, so no clean-up is needed in most cases. Using very fine tooth blades results in no sanding too.
What you see in the photos did not require sanding. Only a lacquer spray finish. For the ornaments, I sometimes sprinkle colored glitter to the wet lacquer. All reindeer get red noses and black eyes, applied using felt marking pens. I used to carry the red marking pen and ask "what is the reindeer's name". If the reply was "Rudolph" I would give him a red nose.

I don't ever charge for these. They are "Gifts". I frequently carry a few during the Christmas Season and give one to any woman who helps me in some way. Doctors, Nurses, sales clerks, waitresses, etc. are all offered one after they have helped me. Very few have refused to accept one. Men are only interested if they are woodworkers or desperate for a gift to give to their wives. I have made several woodworking friends this way though.

Charley

[Vince Shriver]

Thanks for the chuckle, Robert. Very funny.

[Leigh Betsch]

those Christmas gifts are really nice. And the best use I've seen yet.

[George Yetka]

If you are hard up for space and dont use small pieces consider listing them for local pickup. Im sure theres plenty out there that would happily take them.