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Comment

Comment by Ted W. Broussard on March 8, 2010 at 6:13pm

Thank you Michael. It's my very favorite material because of the connection with my family. My mother and father lived in the Atchafalaya Basin when they were children. Many houses, barns, and boats were built of cypress by the Acadians (Cajuns) because it was abundant, hardy, and resistant to rotting and termites. I will post a picture of a large bookcase that I built with sinker cypress about 10 years ago. It is the darkest, deepest red/gold that I have seen.

Comment by michael pope on March 8, 2010 at 5:53pm

Very nice work Ted...top quality..I too haven't ever used cypress but from the looks of it,would love to try.

Comment by Ted W. Broussard on March 6, 2010 at 12:33pm

Alan, 2 things that you should know:

1. Cypress is very soft material similar to pine. It can get banged up pretty easily. If you are after a rustic look, like I am, the dings don't matter so much.

2. Acclimate the material.

I mentioned in an earlier post, that I wanted my door panels to be a single board...no glue up. Cabinet and furniture makers would react by saying "you gotta be kidding" ! What about cracking, splitting, and warping. The secret is to acclimate the material to the environment in which it will reside. If it's your home, bring it in for a couple of weeks. Your wife will not like this, but believe me, it makes a world of difference. If you can, hide it behind the couch, spare bedroom, or somewhere in the heated or air conditioned area of your home.

I built a large bookcase out of sinker about 10 years ago. No splits, cracks, or warping. Same with my wife's new cabinets that I finished in October 2009.

BTW: if you have to use a combination of old and new cypress, as I did with the refrigerator cabinet (cypress plywood) & the crown molding, there is a stain formula that works....Minwax - 2 parts Puritan Pine / 1 part Cherry. Perfect match as you can see with the crown molding on my cabinets.

Comment by Alan on March 5, 2010 at 6:54pm

Ted, hopefully i can find some of that when I get to my cabinets (wife approving of course). They are definitely very nice, especially considering that's a clear coat :)

Ian, i feel what your sayin'. My current residence isn't probably as much of a blank slate as you are saying, but I definitely know what it's like to see things that need to be done everywhere you look. I also know about just starting. I look around and see all the places i messed up. I just chalk it up to lessons learned, lol

Comment by Ted W. Broussard on March 5, 2010 at 3:53pm

Alan, for my kitchen cabinets, I paid $2.00 per board foot and $6.00 pbf. Strange, ain't it? Well, here's what happened. I know someone who, for years now has been looking for and finding old cypress logs in the Atchafalyla Basin ( a mere 5 or 6 miles from my home). I bought about 1/2 of what I knew that I needed from him for $2.00 pdf....rough sawn. I brought the material over to a woodworking shop where I had it planed and sanded. I used that material along with pre-finished birch for my cabinet carcasses.

When the time came for doors and drawers, I happened upon 6 sinker boards at a local lumber dealer. The color was very nice. The six boards measured 6' long and up to 18" or 19" wide! These boards came from somewhere in Florida. $6.00 pbf. I wanted to have full panels for the doors and not have to glue them up to get the width that I needed. I was concerned about a possible problem with color match, but as you can see, there was not problem. The finish that you see is clear polyurethane.....no stain. The results were better than I expected.

And, just so you understand the real value of sinker cypress....these are old logs that have beautiful color compared to new cypress which tends toward no color or just white....no variation. The color of the sinker comes not only from the age of the log, but also the fact that it has been sitting under water for a long period of time and has soaked up some of the minerals from the mud in which it is resting.

Comment by Ian S on March 5, 2010 at 2:41pm

Sorry to say that there is no "Real" wood there. I looked a little closer at a door that had come off, and
all it is made from is good looking press board. The other shelves I put up are just 1x6 pine.

I don't have the faintest idea of lumber prices, I'm really new to woodworking. I've dabbled in construction
from time to time, but never coming close to "fine" woodworking or cabinetry.

The hole house is pretty much a blank canvas. This will be a real learning experience and hopefully
a lot of fun.

Comment by Alan on March 5, 2010 at 2:17pm

Those cabinets are very very nice. I haven't seen sinker cypress used before I don't think. I had to look up what you meant by it, lol. I was wondering if you could share how much the sinker cypress lumber costs approximately?

Ian, you definitely have a blank slate there! Can't wait to see how it turns out :)

Comment by Ian S on February 12, 2010 at 5:02pm

Notice there are drawers and doors missing. This is all temporary, Major overhaul starting NOW!!!

Comment by Ian S on February 12, 2010 at 4:56pm

Yes, My daughter bought an old house. I figure it was built in the late 40's, what I refer to as a post WWII house.
It has beautiful 10' ceiling, however, previous owners did major damage without realizing it when they removed the original flu from the wood burning stove. This was the backbone of the house and has been sinking ever since.

Back on subject.

Attached are photo's taken with my camera phone.

Forgive the mess, Under Construction........

As you might see there is very little cabinet space. What is there has degraded to the point that it is literally falling apart. Other than that, these shelves I installed a couple of months ago just to be able to have a place to set stuff on; the walls were bare.

I just finish re-wiring the electric. Replace the original screw type fuses with new circuit breaker service. Remove old cloth wrapped wiring and there was NO insulation in the attic, last week we installed R40 loose fill insulation.

There is a drop ceiling that was installed because the original ceiling had degraded so the original lap board plaster is falling down, this too will be restored.

I love the 10' ceiling in the house, it has just been so neglected, there has to be restoration done.

Comment by Ted W. Broussard on February 12, 2010 at 10:02am

Thank you, Ian. This was only my second attempt at raised panel and the first time that I used Kreg pocket screws and biscuit joinery! I have worked quite a bit with sinker cypress, my favorite material. Are you doing a kitchen for your daughter?

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