Eagle Project 3

For this project I used an eagle which I had previously made and a basswood plank. The eagle pattern came from a Kathy Wise book, but I did not use the pattern full size. Instead I made the eagle 12.5" wide so it would fit onto the basswood plank.

I purchased the basswood plank from a craft store and wood burned the text onto it. Basswood planks have bark on the edge. This is appealing but adds a challenge. The bark can easily flake off. I have found the best way to protect the final product is to apply super glue (either liquid or gel) to those parts of the bark that have broken away or seem ready to break away. Then apply shellac. Shellac has the beneficial quality of soaking into the bark and holding it similar to glue but without looking like any glue has been applied. By the time I finished this project, I had applied three coats of shellac to the bark.

SAFETY FIRST

I did not use power tools for this project, but I did use a wood burning tool. It is important to use all tools safely.

Small wooden eagle. See another set of instructions which I submitted.

Basswood plank

Wood burning tool

Super glue - gel

Super glue - liquid

Wood glue

The best way I have found to transfer letters is with a wood burning 'transfer tool'. First write the text using a computer, then flip it horizontally. Print it on a LASER printer. Letters printer with a dot matrix printer cannot be transferred to wood using the heat transfer method. I flip the text horizontally and save it as pdf to a USB stick. Then I print it at a local store which has laser printers.

Carefully place the text face down on the wood plank and use a wood burning 'transfer tool' to transfer the image. This takes a while.

Then use a standard wood burning tool to wood burn the letters.

Adjust the eagle to the plank as you wish, then glue it. For gluing I use wood glue plus super glue (gel).

I clamp with a 1/4" thick board (approx 2" wide X 14" long) wrapped in cloth to avoid damaging the eagle.

On the back I attached two D-ring hangers with a small rope between them. For top coat, I used shellac.