Wooden Fish Weathervanes: Part One

Wooden Weathervanes, Fish Story
Part One:  Using what you know.  Staying with what I know, I was not going to be using exotic wood, carving masterpieces for profit let alone a museum.  Backyard, wind moved, wooden, using material that was readily available, tools that I had with skills at hand.
     Big Box hardware store is readily available so that was an easy choice.  Lumber in various species, grades and dimensions was close by. Glues, hardware and any tools that might be needed were all within easy reach. Starting with wood was the first of many decisions.
     WOOD:  Attractive color, grain and cost were high on the list.  Living in the mountain West, there is access to lots of western red cedar.  It is used primarily for fence posts, comes in construction common rough grade.  Pine, mixed fir, Doug fir again is readily available,  Redwood, clear heart, gorgeous material that is pricey to construction grades that are con common grades.  Generally the more you pay the less knots or clear stock.  Rustic with knots is fine for this application.

Red Cedar. Common construction grade. Expect more knots.  If the material is not kiln dried, dry the material in a low humidity environment.  A 4X4 will take time to dry to the core.  Shaping, sanding and all prep work short of epoxy and varnish can be done in the drying stage.

     KILN DRIED:  How dry the wood is matters. All species can be sold "green."  That means moisture content somewhere between a saturated sponge -- water will ooze out when you drill, drive screws or nail -- to kiln dried (KD) which may be milled, smooth and have a low moisture content.  For my use, KD is the only way to go.

     KD is important because all the water in the wood wants to get out. And, it takes a long time for the wood to dry naturally, even in the prevailing 13% humidity of summer in the mountain west, great basin. Why dry?  Remember that the wood is going to be sealed with epoxy. Once the epoxy is on, the moisture is inside and wants to get out. Out gassing of air/moisture is a real issue when you have high moisture content wood.  Enough said on that issue.  GET KD MATERIAL. If not, you will assuredly have problems in the near and distant future of the final product.
     SPECIES AND DIMENSIONS: As long as it is KD (or has been dried for months/years and not recently exposed to wet conditions), there are lots of options.  My preference is western red cedar and redwood.  Great color on both. Texture of the grain really shows up in the finish.  Both take epoxy well and have the "wet look." Once the epoxy is on, the wood has a saturated appearance that remains indefinitely.  The dry appearance that is present with the wood gives way to really attractive, red, blonde, yellow tones.  Pine gives you, white and yellow.  There may be some person that like the pine appearance  --old growth tight grained clear Ponderosa -- but for me, and aesthetics, cedar or redwood.  And, both are available, easy to work with and  naturally deter rot.

Wooden Fish

Redwood, Clear, few to no knots, heart, meaning red with little to no blonde.  Three 2X6s glued and shaped, wet or saturated look from epoxy and varnish

     DIMENSIONS:  How much gluing are you interested in completing?  Standard 4X4 material, KD and rough milled can be planed with one face on each piece for gluing.  That results in a glue up of @7X3.5" that can be shaped to the final form.  More on that later.  2X6 (1.5X5.5") material works fine but needs more glue up.  I have glued up two and three 2X6s to shape to a final form.  With just two, the glue up is @3x5.5" compared to three glued up, 4.5X5.5".  Depending on the scale you are after, the length of the final form needs to be considered. 3X5.5" results in a rather narrow and deep form, or a skinny fish.  My preference is the wider body as being closer to anatomically kinda correct.  Again, I am after something that resembles a fish, what species is not a goal.  A general fish shape is all that I am after. A purist would surely scoff at the shape.  I have made some that kinda resemble a Koi and others that look more like a Goldfish snack food.  The available material in my storage kind of defines what I have used. So, the available material and vision may define the glue up.

Wooden Fish: Glue line visible as the terminator of the blond and start of the red.  2, 4X4" redwood posts, repurposed.  Note the saturated  look and feel of the grain

     I guess you could glue up a really large initial shape.  BUT, remember that at some point in time you probably will need to attach the shape to a spindle if your goal is to have it move in the wind.  For my purposes, skills and tools that I have with the goal of a wind moved piece of kinetic yard art, I am limited to @5" wide, 6-7" deep and a length, depending on width and aesthetics, of  around 30-44".

Western Red Cedar. 4X4 material. Lighter in color, knots.

     REPURPOSED WOOD: That is a popular term to describe what in years past was called scrap wood. I salvaged some 40+ year old redwood 4X4 posts from a deck that  was being modified.  Under paint I found the redwood, set it aside and used for a fish.  From the same job, there was some scrap material, end cuts and left over material.  So, I had material to form 3 fish from what otherwise may have ended-up in some dump or nailed up in some use not worthy of the really nice material.

Wooden Fish

All redwood.  The difference between clear heart, more expensive and getting harder to get, and construction common in the middle.  All salvaged wood.

     Next up, gluing, designing and the start of the shape