My friend Ian recently asked me to build a sign for the local health food store, which he owns and operates. He gave me couple of lengths of beautiful Douglas Fir and a design he had drawn up... and this week we hung it in front of the store.
I was delighted to do some work for a good friend and an awesome local business just a hundred feet away from the school. I do lots of grocery shopping here as the store carries a great selection of local and organic produce, free range eggs, organic meats, bulk foods, health and beauty products, as well as locally made art, jewellery and gifts. Gladly I received store credit in return - thanks Ian for the awesome exchange!
Hello Ian!
I really enjoyed this project after working complex angled joinery for some time... nice and simple 90-degree mortise and tenons but at a larger scale than I am used to working. The hardest part was finding a perfectly sized router bit to run the grooves for the panel.
Fitting the panel
It was my first time working with Douglas Fir and I found that I loved its smell as I mortised and cut curves on the bandsaw. It was fun planing although it had some sections of reversing grain that tore out deeply even with the lightest cuts, so I scraped and sanded a bit.
Gary, dear friend of the school and relief teacher, gave me some finish intended for outdoor cedar called Cedar Seal. We figured it would work just fine on the Fir and its quick-drying, low-VOCs, one-coat application was highly appealing. It left the wood looking natural and warm after it dried and I was very pleased. Thanks, Gary. It'll be interesting to observe how it holds up to the rain and sun.