My master piece

[dkff49]

Yeah me too. Most of this tree made it into my woodstove but thankfully this tree was well placed in between the 2 houses and 2 pine trees which prevented the bottom from having too many knots in it. The friend that owns the property told me that it was coming down no matter what since he was tired of the acorns and the mess, so I took advantage of it. My only real regret is not paying the extra for kiln drying. I ended up waisting about half of what was cut into planks due to cracks in the boards from drying and the lumber ways almost 1/3 more than it would kiln dried. The darn lid ways 20 pounds alone and I actually had to weigh it to figure out which supports to use.

[Rondar]

Looking at the first picture of the endgrain of that large log, it looks kind of like a teddy bear in there, and with a little imagination, where the saw makes a cut deeper, looks like a little paw kind of over its mouth.  Got a slice of that left to maybe stain it for a clock or something?  Great work by the way.

[GFShill]

Sweet piece of work!  I really like the leather carry straps on the ends. My only concern is that oak is a heavy wood, and with 3 coats of poly on it I can only imagine what the whole piece weighs. Are the straps for show or are they really functional?

Beautiful piece in any event. When build chests, they look like WW2 footlockers. 

[bravoa8]

Awesome!

[FireDrgn]

True Craftsmanship   VERY NICE................

[BrownBaron]

Sometimes it amazes me what can be created from such a large ordinary object (shown below) that most people overlook.

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I built the hope chest below from the above pin oak tree that I had cut down at a friend's house a couple of years ago and had it air drying since. The bulk of the work was done in my very small (10x14) workshop located in the basement of my house. Finished with 3 coats of clear gloss polyurethane and Golden Oak stain.

It has been a great challenge and very rewarding now that is completed. The only plan I followed was the on that I had pictured in my head, which was altered many times to produce the finished product you see below. Honestly I am very amazed that it came out like it did since it is my first project of this size and detail.

Oh one more detail in case you were wondering, I cut that huge letter B from the same lumber and spent a couple of hours sanding to get it to look just right. My fingers are still raw.
 
This one was built for my 15 year old daughter as a Cristmas gift. My wife and I are very anxious to see the look on her face when she see it on Christmas Day. I do have another chest planned for a friend of mine from the same lumber and armed with the leasons learned from this one.

Anyway here is the closest thing to art that I am capable of.

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Cheer up Dave! You look like you just watched a puppy die!

[dkff49]

I didn't notice the bear in the end grain until you said something, unfortunately everything that did  not get cut into planks was burned up that winter.

The leather straps are functional and at 1/4 of an inch thick i would probably more concerned with the #7 brass screws holding the loops on breaking than the leather. At any rate though most of the movement that will take place with this chest will be rolling on the casters that are behind the trim pieces on the bottom. My wife and I picked it up by the straps to put it on the coffee table and there was not even a mark in the leather from the loops. In 20 years or so those straps will probably have to be replaced. These are actually straps made for lifting trunks/chests.

Baron I am smiling what are you talking about.  Actually the expression you see is exhaustion. I had worked about 80 hours a week for the last 2 months plus working on this chest, a doll house, set of shower curtain rods, organizing the shop better, and doing side work. As much fun as this project was I am glad it is done though.

You guys are all too kind though and I appreciate all your comments. I am actually so proud of this piece that I stamped my name into it with an iron that my brother got for me years ago.