A few weeks back I was asked to pick up some angle iron for a window we were installing in an office building. This took me to a steel fabricating plant where I met Mr. Cooley. He had a large crew of men and was gracious enough to give me a tour of the plant. This company does some large steel fabrication work and while touring the plant I happened to see a piece of wood under some strap steel. I was informed that this piece of wood was a piece of ‘bunage’ used in stacking steel during transport.
The piece was about 14 inches long and a rough 6 inch by 5 inch block. It was severely weathered, bruised with unknown liquid stains that made it difficult for me to identify the species. I asked if I could have the piece to carve a boot. It had a large knot at one end and some severe checking.
In my workshop I had cut one blank to incorporate the knot and soon found that I had a piece of red oak that was also severely spalted. For the wood, I had promised Mr. Cooley a boot patterned after his heavy work boots seen in picture 3. Since there was some extra wood left over I had enough to complete a pair. Picture 2 shows the boots as they came out of the wood. This was an interesting project as the wood had much variation in colour and texture and the carving had to be handled with much care to minimize splitting and over carving of the spalted areas.
The pair was power carved with a Foredom and sanded with sanding drums on a flex-shaft. I finished the wood with Shellawax a ‘U Beaut Polishes’ product from Australia. This polish is used by wood turners to get a fine finish on their pens.
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