Dad's 80th Birthday Present

[Latimeria]

I was supposed to fly out for Dad's 80th birthday, but then my surgery got scheduled and the planets just never seemed to align.

There was only one thing Dad wanted for his birthday, though, and it was something he wanted me to make.

Twenty-six years ago, I built him a wooden sign for their house up in the hills. Somehow that sign survived 26 years of snow, ice, rain, sun, and everything else Mother Nature could throw at it. Back then, I shipped it out for what felt like pocket change compared to today's shipping costs.

When Dad asked for a replacement, I told him I'd build something he'd love.

The original sign used real antlers, which seemed like a great idea at the time. Unfortunately, the local rodents thought they were a snack, and the neighborhood kids apparently viewed them as souvenirs because they kept trying to steal them off the sign.

So with that in mind, I got to work on version 2.0.

I also built the shipping crate like a tank because there was no way I was trusting this project to make the trip unprotected.

Here's the progression from start to finish:

I went resin this time.



PNW Redwood.



Rounded edges and smoothed out.



Honey stain and nautical rope trim.















Arrived today and the shipping is 5x as much as the last time I shipped one to him.





He was really happy with it and was as stoked as I've heard him in years.  Last time I saw him this happy he had a hole in one!  Okay, well he was happier over the hole in one.  hahahah

[jrodda]

Killer craftsmanship Tom. From the wood down to the little details, glad he was stoked.