Gnarly North Dakota Twisted Red Cedar Lamp - Beginnings....

Well, I decided to switch gears a bit and try my hand at making a lamp sorta kinda like my Dad did waaaaaaay back in the day. My sister in North Dakota has possession of two of those lamps:

And I have possession of two more (only one is pictured because the other one is undergoing some repair after the base cracked and broke off). 

So, I guess it's safe to say my Dad was my inspiration for this and many other projects.

Anyway, the lamp I've now started working on is a very gnarly piece of North Dakota twisted red cedar I got from somewhere in the Badlands of western North Dakota (outside any parks, national or otherwise) many years ago before moving to Colorado. The photo shows it after it had been power washed. So, the gray color is kinda gone, but not completely.

 

Here's a pic of a piece I cut off that wasn't power washed. It'll help give an idea of what it looked like before going under the nozzle.

The difference between the twisted red cedar from North Dakota and the twisted juniper from Colorado that I've used in the past to make bowls and vases is the North Dakota twisted red cedar doesn't have any sapwood. It's red all the way through with some yellow striations (raw bottom of the lamp shows the red all the way through:

Juniper from Colorado has red heartwood with an outer layer of yellowish sap wood. Don't ask me why because I have no idea. 

Personal preference: Although the Colorado juniper has some very interesting and beautiful patterns that distinguish its character and beauty, for some reason I've always liked the solid red of the North Dakota variety a little better. Again, don't ask me why because it's just a personal preference. 

So, because the piece I'm working on now is very odd shaped, I had to figure out a way to flatten the bottom that had already been cut with a chainsaw leaving it a bit uneven. I used tie downs to hold it firmly in place upside down while using my router planer sled to flatten the bottom. It's not floating. It just looks that way from this angle.

Here's a better angle to show how the piece was secured.

This short video shows just how gnarly this kind of wood can be. 

After the piece was firmly secured by the tie-downs, I was able to run my router over it to get it flat.

This is the main feature of my router planer set-up that I like the most.....it's height adjustable to just about any height I may need for a project.

Finally, I took a couple of photos of the piece while it was still wet from power washing to get an idea of what it might look like after polyurethane is applied. I think I'm liking it a lot.

Pretty gnarly, eh?

DWR