My mom’s birthday was coming up and I had a piece of figured black walnut that had been on my mind for a while. Crotch wood like this comes from where the trunk forks into two branches — the grain swirls and compresses in these areas, producing amazing figure that catches the light (as well as your plane irons). It’s a truism that the most beautiful wood is generally the hardest to work with!
I resawed the piece and book-matched the two halves. A strip of maple runs down the middle of the joint, just for fun.
One of the panels had about ten inches of bark running through it, a remnant of the crotch. I wanted to feature the irregularity rather than remove it, so I cleaned it as best I could with an awl, a small gouge, and a bunch of finicky hand sanding. To stabilize it, I cut in a walnut bow tie (butterfly key) across the crack to lock it in place.
I framed the panel in walnut with handle cutouts cut into the short sides and corner dowels for reinforcement. The whole thing was finished with Tried & True Original wood finish — a linseed oil and beeswax blend. It’s food-safe and brings out the depth of walnut figure without building up a plastic-looking film. It also smells good!
