Rustic Crab - Reclaimed Pallet Wood

My wife likes to collect Crab shaped items and I noticed a design she had placed on her Pinterest board, which I decided to made on my own from some pallet wood I already had stocked in my woodshop.

I used 2 Oak pallet boards (my pallets came EVO Brewery which uses hard wood pallets to ship glass bottles on), some TiteBond glue, carbon paper (for tracing), a pattern, and a scroll saw - also a table saw, but you could use any saw you have

First I selected two boards from the previously prepared pallet wood pile.

Using my Gripper, I ripped the 1x4 in half long ways / then ripped them in half on the 3/4 " edge (see photo)

Using the tables saw and my Gripper I cut the lengths to match my patterns needs

using the Titebond I glued my pieces together to create a 'sheet' of wood, it dried for a week (due to the weather & not being able to get back into the shop) be sure to follow the instructions on the glue you select to use

This was my pattern which I laid over a sheet of carbon paper - then used a ball point pen to transfer the outline to the wood

Using my scroll saw I cut out the shape of the crab following the carbon outline

Using a sander - smooth out the boards edges, its highs and evening out the low spots. Sand it smooth on one side so it will hang on the wall and/or lay on a table evenly.

Compare your cut out to the pattern to see if any important areas were missed - if you find a missing cut, sketch in the correct outline & use the scroll saw to remove what you need to correct the desired shape

Show off your creation - my wife loved the rustic looking crab and she will likely want another in order to paint it to fully match the shown colors in the pattern. She also wanted to paint one Maryland State flag colors.