What does this piece of maple want to be?

[BuilderBill]

I just can't resist a neat piece of wood, much less one that's On Sale!, so I picked this up the other day at the Rockler store:

Side 1

Side 2

The 15 on the face is what I paid for it, it's a piece of spalted soft maple. Full 4/4 thickness, about 12x35". The bark inclusion caught my eye, but neither it nor the spalting go much further than 1/2" into the piece. So it's either use it whole or slab off a couple or three(at the most) pieces of thick veneer and use that. But which side do I cut it from? And what do I make with it when I've cut it?

I basically have two distinct ways of approaching a piece of work: I know what I need to build and go out and find wood that suits the piece or(and this is a lot more fun!) I find a piece of wood that interests me and then try to figure out what IT wants to be.This piece falls into the second category......

So I'm offering you a chance to play: What do YOU see in this chunk of half-rotted cellulose fiber? If it was propped up in the corner of your shop, what would you make it into? No rules, no prizes, just a chance to expand your world view and exercise the creative side of your brain...

TIA for your feedback,

Bill

[Dave F]

I'd resaw and bookmatch a carved top for a Les Paul or a PRS Custom 22 style guitar... but that's just me.

Like this..

[Vic]

Let's see.."What does it want to be?".....MINE!! ...lol.

I have many pieces that wait to know what they will be when they mature, too.

[Dan S]

I'm with Dave, re-saw & book-match. Instead of a guitar, use it to make the doors of a small hanging tool chest like this bad boy.

popular woodworking sketchup model

[PaulMarcel]

Mine! Oh, nevermind...

The bottom half with the "15" has a lot of nice swirls on both sides of the board. I think for fun I'd try making candle holders, though I don't have it all in my head right now. If you had that bottom half, rip it at +45º then -45º so each strip has a triangular cross section (like a Toblerone tube). The 'offcuts' would be the same. The grain would flow from one strip to the other (alas, not for the last-to-first joint). square up the firsts and offcuts separately for 2 candle holders. With that grain, a "sunburst" dye effect would be nice; pick a nice bright color like Dave showed then "sunburst" from the bottom (a gradient). FWW has a video for a sunburst on a guitar body that was great to watch (I don't have an online membership; I saw it when the video was an online extra for the current issue). Drill a hole in the top for a brass insert (would be nice with an exposed rolled lip) that would accept a candle base.

Thing is, the idea is for the column part, but I haven't thought of an appropriate base.

For the bark inclusion, it looks stable by the color. Bummer, i'd want you to remove it Remove it and bandsaw an edge that follows the edge of the remains of the inclusion leaving a 3/4" lip. Round over that edge with a #50 so it isn't too perfect. Sand it nicely and dye it well (I'd bet there's beautiful grain where the bark exists). Now you have a small candy tray or nut dish.

Both would be perfect for the holidays.

[Lawrence Brown]

10,000 spalted toothpicks!

Okay, I myself would be looking at stabilizing and keeping that incursion, so to me something like a table/desk/chest or something else that had a big, flat surface on the top.

[TomP]

It wants to be free and thrown back into the forest

[Rick LoDico]

That would make a great table top.

[gardnesd]

It looks like it's trying to be the Great Abaco Island up top and Eluthera down south....just sayin'.

[BuilderBill]

Isn't this fun? There've been some great replies, I'm almost tempted to go the Free Willy route or send it off to P-M just to see what the heck he's talking about. Almost....

I've propped the piece up out in the shop where I'll see it as I pass by a few times every day. I do this with photos, I'll print a couple of versions of a file and thumbtack them to a wall. After a few days(or weeks), I'll subconsciously figure out which one I want to use. Same here, I'm starting to think it wants to be a tabletop. And that I should use the clean side, just stabilize the inclusion and leave it on the bottom. I'm thinking a sofa or hall table with a top outline something like the solid red lines in the photo:

and maybe a skirt and legs something like David Marks' cherry sofa table , maybe with walnut or ebonized maple for the understructure to give the piece some contrast and highlight the top.

The problem is that the slab is only a yard long, if I make a table at standard height it'll be pretty much square in the elevation, not very pleasing visually. Another thought is to slice off a couple pieces of veneer and end-match them as indicated by the dash lines in the photo. The red line would give me around a 5'-long table, the black a 4' or so. Either would work a lot better, proportionately, than just the slab alone. But then I have to add a frame and I really like the concept of a simple slab-edged top with maybe just a cove on the bottom edge.

Or maybe I should just go hunt up a larger slab and send this one to P-M?

Decisions, decisions, ain't life fun?

Thanx to all for the input,

Bill

[PaulMarcel]

Ha ha, my brain was somewhere my fingers couldn't figure out

The bark thing was a spontaneous idea. When I reassemble my assembly table tomorrow, I'll be able to get to the stash cuz I think I have a board with such an inclusion. Then I could try it out on mine and turn it into a sleeping aid (i.e., entry on my blog )

The candle holder thingy, though, I need to think more for the base. I have wood that would qualify so maybe I can proxy the project for you

But if you already have it boxed up awaiting my address, lemme know

[greygoose01984]

i see a ping pong table