Rustic Cedar Bench - Finished!

[adowden]

This was a neat project. A dead cedar tree fell in my neighbor's yard this spring. The wife called me up and told me that if her husband offered the tree to me, for me to accept it and make him a bench for his birthday as a surprise. He called and offered me the tree, so I accepted and picked it up. He thought I was going to use it for a project. Scott Smith help me out by cutting the log in half on his sawmill. I sanded it up and mortised two holes for the legs a couple of inches deep. I attached the legs with several dowels. On my neighbor's birthday (Oct. 21st), the wife brought her husband to my house to see the bench. I still had to put one more coat of finish on it. He was shocked when he realized that it was for him and that it was from his tree.

I'm not ready to advertise this type of project on my website, but it was fun to make once.

Amy

 

[bobby g]

It looks great Amy! Congratulations.

bobby g

 

[Sealeveler]

Bench looks great,bet your neighbor was surprised.
Tony

 

[Jeff]

Amy, that's very nice and I'm sure that your neighbor appreciates it. :icon_cheers

A while back you posted a question about what type of finish to use (I think your neighbor's wife wanted it as natural as possible). So...what'd you decide to use and why? :dontknow: Is there finish on the natural bark exterior as well? Just curious for future reference.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

What a great project Amy. Every time your neighbor (or his wife) sits on that bench, they will think of you and the tree it came from. :icon_cheers

Bill

 

[Bob Carreiro]

Great project. Great job. Great thing to do for a neighbor!

 

[scsmith42]

Amy, that came out great!

 

[Joe Scharle]

You can be proud of that :icon_thum

 

[adowden]

The finish I used was marine spar varnish. I like the look, but the feel was still a little tackier than I liked, so I sanded it from 600 grit to 2500 grit and then used turtle wax scratch and swirl remover with a buffer last. The thing was so smooth you could slide from one end to the other. It felt incredible. It was a little overkill, but I saw it on FWW.com and thought I would give it a try. I did not finish any other surfaces. As it turns out my neighbor said it was too pretty to put outside. He decided to put it on his porch. :wsmile:

Amy