you guys may like this.... made for a retiring colonel for his retirement gif to a unit he stood up out at MARSOC.
it's 34" diameter, cut from 2x2x40 planks i milled down mahogany that was all reclaimed... i cut opposing staves across backside of it to brace it after the glue up, and then went to carving.
or this:
the 'softest' wood in that is sapele, and the hardest is padagonian rosewood... there is brazillian cherry (jatoba) which broke a table saw belt when dimensioning, padouk, purple heart, hard maple (which actually may be softer than the sapele now that i think about it, but it's close)... this was to become a desktop with inlays of a compass rose and name for my daughter- then i realized i painted myself into a corner without leaving area enough for contrasting wood... the inlay was to take up the entire lower right to upper right corner.
and then this for an old platoon sgt's (and the best leader i ever served with) wife- inlayed black walnut into a swamp maple live edge plank... i sent it inlayed and nothing else, and let him finish it out as a gist to her.
here is where the money comes from:
that engine cover barely fit on my table. they come in two's - one for starboard engine and one for port... they cover some fire breathing supercharged marine engines producing over 2kHP each... these are on the bottom of the hatch/compartment cover and only seen when the covers are lifted... that is carbon fiber with epoxy/resin encapsulating a piece of 3/8" acrylic that has edge lighting also laid into it.
my job is to locate the acrylic and then cut through the grpahite/resin and make the logo... when these are brought to me the factory (an hour north or so) have to tell the insurance company they're leaving and then when they arrive... then again when they pick them up.... i refuse to transport them. they're around $20k for the set. after they leave there is a resin pour to fill the logo/pocket i just cut... they use a very specific epoxy and go through pains to make it cure at just the right rate and at a precise temperature... otherwise, which is a lesson they learned the hard way, the epoxy melts and drips all over those engines which make the cost of the covers look like paper wrappers in terms of cost.
it was originally done as a custom job and by request from a specific owner, but is now an option offered by fountain.... and yours truly get to do the cuts... why? because i'm teh only one dumb enough to cut into such expensive material where there is no documentation on how to do so...
and i'll leave yall alone after this one, and since it kinda circles back to football... a guy asked me to take a table that had been in his family since he was a kid (he's around 60 or so) and was the first table his parents bought as a couple- and 'do something with it'... it doesn't have a lot of value money wise, but tremendous value sentimentally... dinners eaten over it, paperwork keeping the family running, arguments, good times and bad times, as he told it... he's done really well for himself and this thing doesn't quite fit in with the style of his house anymore- but he wasn't about to get rid of it... so... he made it a poker table and it exists in his game room with a new lease on life.. he's a big NCST fan as you likely noticed. that's black walnut inlayed into very damn old soft maple (that is far from actually soft)... this was a fun and fairly quick job (except for the stripping of the original finish).
