Many times the slices of wood I use aren't wide enough for the piece I'm working on. So, I have a choice to make. I can either cut the live edges off so they are straight edges making it easier to join the pieces together or I can maintain the shape of the live edges as much as possible and join them together which is much more challenging to do. Take a look at these pieces and you'll see what I mean. This is a footboard and is made with 4 slices of a log. I marked the areas of interest on each picture so you can hopefully see what I'm talking about. You can zoom in on that last picture to see the detail.
So nice. you are talented @mikewinfreyst
Thank you @binhdiem.
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I like the idea, how much time do you spent on such a piece?
I don't track my time but guessing this one took about 15 hours or so.
Do you use hand tools only for joining or a router copy jig?
Should stop complaining about the time I spend for tops..........
I very rarely use a router. I use a variety of tools depending on the join type. So I can't answer that directly. Joining those pieces for the footboard in that picture I used a saber saw believe it or not.
I do t get hung up on time any more. I've proven to myself that I can build stuff in less time because I'm using dimensioned lumber. However, the character of the wood is lost in many ways. I like shaping the pieces based on the grain asmuch as I can. So if there's grain that runs around a knot for example I may use the grain as my cut line. That's takes a lot more time. There's no way I could make a living creating pieces like this. I'd never recoup my labor. Starving artist kind of deal.