He Finds Beauty In Hated Buckthorn

He Finds Beauty In Hated Buckthorn 33-4-8 "I used to cut them down and burn them," says Cliff Johnson, who lives on country acreage near Chaska, Minn., "but that was before my daughter told me about some beautiful wood utensils she had seen hand-carved out of buckthorn. "It was like a light went on in my brain," says Johnson. Within a few hours he had peeled back the bark on a buckthorn log and then split it in half. He used a belt sander to polish the wood and rubbed some tung oil on it. "It had some of the most beautiful texture and color that I had ever seen. From that point on I was hooked," says Johnson. That was five years ago, and now Johnson has a thriving woodworking hobby making cribbage boards, serving spoons, ladles, salad forks, letter openers and other objects. Because of the beautiful texture, color and knot structure of the buckthorn, no two finished items are alike. Spoons, forks and ladles often have beautiful and intricate designs that are really imperfections in the wood. Cribbage boards show dark, medium and light grain swirls with unusual colors. Johnson started out with a few chisels and a small jig saw. "I didn't know any better at first," Johnson says with a laugh, "and those first items took a long time." Over the years he has added a commercial bandsaw, a rotary tool with more than 30 bits, several drills with beveled sanding wheels, and specialized chisels. His designs have also evolved. "Initially I would split the wood and cut or sand a flat surface," says Johnson. "Now I'm able to visualize unique items in the unusual shapes, sizes and colors of the original wood." That eye for design now produces cribbage boards that look like the head of a seagull, the cambered back of an animal, or a four-fingered hand. He sells most of his handcrafted pieces at shows and at presentations where he gives talks on woodworking and gardening. His woodshed is now packed with drying wood that has to cure 4 to 5 years before he starts working on it. "It's a great hobby," says Johnson. "Very rewarding for a farm kid who used to just cut this stuff down year after year to keep it from overtaking our pastures." Contact FARM SHOW followup, Cliff Johnson, 12820 Laurie Lane, Chaska, Minn. 55318 (ph 952 466-2288; cliff johnson1@mac.com; www.puttingdown roots.net).

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