January 2014 – PRAIRIE BENCH

Family Crest

by Prairie BenchJanuary 21, 2014November 29, 20150

In the heraldic tradition, we’ve completed a family crest in a wood cut design on spruce. Read more here…

This is not a shield, as the armor version would include iron strapping and bolts, as well as hand grip and sleeve. Check back for that one soon.

After the edges were flamed, the design had a brisk resand with 100 grit to blur any soot and scuff up the chisel marks. The finish is a mix of Prairie Bench Storybook with a lot of mineral spirits, 3 to 1. This gives a dirty, aged colour and brings out the grey tones.

A diluted mix of International Red was painted on the lion and the rear flag. Then the crest received several coats of poly, but not too much because the dry look adds to the age.

A heavy gauge picture wire is connected to a bracket then screwed to the rear for hanging .

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Approx size: 32″x21″ with 5% curve. Spruce finished in polyurethane.

Hand Carved Wooden Crest

by Prairie BenchJanuary 16, 2014December 11, 20190

Take a look at the progress of a hand carved wooden crest for the Family O’Leary. It’s part of a promo we’re doing at a new store in town.

Also… we put together an ‘ancient’ spruce wooden crest. First a sketch with ye ol carpenter’s pencil. Then rough out the shapes with a sharp chisel, then get fancy with a grinding wheel and some carving knives. We used spruce planks and didn’t plane them for a rough, hewn look. Next, we’ll cut the final shape, burn the edges, throw in some sword gouges and four hundred years of weather. Crests are fun to do because we learn something about the family history. This includes a sword and gantlet, crown, helmet, three masted ship, the crest, plumage, and a red lion. Check back to see the final piece when we’ve aged it and added a few battles.

Wooden Crest

by Prairie BenchJanuary 6, 2014December 11, 20190

In the age old tradition of carving family crests on thick wooden shields, we did our own. It’s a representation of a lion on a field of leaves.

Our carver created a fine line etching and finished the work with a custom frame holder. The crest is made out of a few select pieces of fine grain spruce and the holder is fir. Spruce is a softer wood but quite strong and pleasant to carve and whittle. A light stain of mixed antiquing oils was used to penetrate the etching and darken the lines. The piece is soaked in linseed oil and cured to a hard finish. (If you are working with oils, remember to place the rags in a sealed metal container or they might spontaneously ignite. Or hang them outside to dry.)

A retired furniture manufacturer from the UK saw this piece and pronounced it definitely guild quality. We don’t know about all that, but humbled considering we are just whittling out back.

Approximate size: 31″ x 21″ x 1.5″ thick with a 5% curve.