Shopsmith Forums

Taking a break from a gun cabinet build for son.
Brother in WY cut a huge sage brush and gave me a a couple 5' pieces of the thickest parts. About 3"-4" thick.
Stripped it down to the sound woody part. Geeze, what a mess that was/is.
Cutting oysters from it to cover a box. It's really twisted and crooked. Getting semi-consistent thicknesses is a challenge. But, the growth rings and shapes of the oysters is really interesting. Don't know yet what it''ll look like with a coat of clear finish. Might need to stain it a bit.
The plan is to cut some poplar to 7" width and long enough to make a box 8" long and 5" in width and height.
Then glue on the oysters. Have to build a router planing sled to level them all out. After they are level, I'll fill in all the gaps with turquoise and epoxy. Then, cut it to final size for the box.
I think it's going to be fun, and that's what it's all about, right?

Progress pics tomorrow....maybe.

This is some of what I started with. [ATTACH]20576[/ATTACH]

The oysters ready to be seasoned (glued):D [ATTACH]20577[/ATTACH]

Here's some clamped.[ATTACH]20578[/ATTACH]

Looks very interesting, keep us posted!

Will do, Chris. Hope to get them all glued on and the edges trued today.
Getting oyster edges sawn to fit and sanded is slow picky work. But, so far it's fun.

What part of the country does that sage brush come from. I have never seen any that was quite that thick.

Maybe what you are recognizing as sage brush is a different species. The sage brush that I grew up with was more like a tumble weed.

Yeah, me too, Dusty. It comes from mid northern WY. It grows so thick along the state roads that counties have employees whose full time jobs for most of the year is bull dozing them. While visiting there last summer, I saw even bigger pieces in several bull dozed brush piles. He picked one that he could readily saw up and yet small enough that I could haul it home.
If one wanted to take the time to clean some larger pieces, it would make for some interesting slabs.

dusty wrote:What part of the country does that sage brush come from. I have never seen any that was quite that thick.

Maybe what you are recognizing as sage brush is a different species. The sage brush that I grew up with was more like a tumble weed.

Sage brush??? Most likely we're looking at cross sections of a Mesquite or some species of Acacia. both Legumes and have elongated seed pods. Just a guess, but makes sense that local (or family pet names) have been given to these thorny shrubby spike loaded small trees. Some ever get out of the shrub stage.

Tumble weeds are actually Russian thistle - imported a long time ago. Bikers in Southern CA call these "Goat heads" after their small two pointed spikes that puncture bike tires.

Sage brush - an entirely different set of species, Artimesia tridentata or big sage having a big presence in the Northern Rocky Mtn area. Sorry, Don't remember the Scientific name of "Silver sage".

It truly is sage, Charles. Big Sage (artimesia tridentata) as you correctly stated. Came from N. WY, where it's considered a noxious weed.
There's a lot of Bigelow or artemisia bigelovii growing on the Navajo Reservation just north of me. It's used for ceremonial purposes as well as medicinal. It gets fair sized but nothing like the stuff from WY.
Silver Sage is atimesia cana, I believe.
Goat heads are the bane of our existence here. Until we were able to get a handle on the tumble weeds (they can never be totally controlled) we kept the tire shop in town in business. Then we discovered green slime and lately, we've started putting in the same goop that the farmers put in their tractor tires.

charlese wrote:Sage brush??? Most likely we're looking at cross sections of a Mesquite or some species of Acacia. both Legumes and have elongated seed pods. Just a guess, but makes sense that local (or family pet names) have been given to these thorny shrubby spike loaded small trees. Some ever get out of the shrub stage.

Tumble weeds are actually Russian thistle - imported a long time ago. Bikers in Southern CA call these "Goat heads" after their small two pointed spikes that puncture bike tires.

Sage brush - an entirely different set of species, Artimesia tridentata or big sage having a big presence in the Northern Rocky Mtn area. Sorry, Don't remember the Scientific name of "Silver sage".

Gene Howe wrote:It truly is sage, Charles. Big Sage (artimesia tridentata) as you correctly stated. Came from N. WY, where it's considered a noxious weed...

Bur pronghorns love it - a major part of their diet.

Thanks for the clarification and also the name of Silver sage. I Didn't even know it was in the Artimesia fmaily.

Gene and Charlese: You two have educated me on plants that I have in my back yard - or least did have. I have been chopping most of that stuff down and digging up the roots. It has been on the delete list along with most of my prickly pear cactus.

I may have to rethink this in so far as the sage goes. It is probably good cover and maybe feed for some of the birds that I don't want to drive off. Especially the quail and the road runners. The road runners won't feed on it but they may take cover under it.

I've never let the sage grow long enough to get large. Dumb stunt.