what to do with old oak barrel staves?

My other half rescued two old oak (I think) barrel staves from a scrap heap this evening and brought them home.

They seem far too good to be burned on the fire, but there are only two of them, so I need ideas!









Ideally something useful.  

All suggestions welcome!

Best thought so far is to make a sign(s). Routed or carved into. Maybe one is the sign post?

Maybe the dragons need a drawbridge somewhere?

Cool tape measure!

Those will be beautiful once they are sanded.

Some idea:

Cutting board
Serving tray
Box for jewelry
Wall shelves for small knick knacks
Coffee table
Bench

The dragons want snow skis!!
And I agree, awesome tape measure :D
No bright ideas from here

What's the thickness, Burra?

Is it just picture distortion, or are they still holding the barrel curvature. That would make them springy!

Is the length 3 ft?

Awesome ideas so far - please keep them coming!

Jay Angler wrote:What's the thickness, Burra?

According to little Linguista, who has a very long tongue which speaks both Metric and Imperial, the thickness is  1.8 cm, or 11/16 of an inch. Both staves are the same thickness and length, but different widths.

Is it just picture distortion, or are they still holding the barrel curvature. That would make them springy!

Yes, they are both holding the barrel curvature. And possibly more importantly the curvature is the same on each of them.

Is the length 3 ft?

A little under - 34", so 2 ft 10".

Or 86.6 cm

Now, to address the ideas and see which of them begin to take shape...

Signs - we don't really have much use for signs. It's just us, and about three visitors a year.

Dragon drawbride - the dragons love that idea, but I really have no idea where it would go. Plus half the dragons have wings and the others tend to use their bodies as bridges given half a chance. Our school motto was a fo ben bid bont which translates as if you would be a leader, be a bridge and they take it a bit literally sometimes. I've caught Serra in the washbasin before now attempting to rescue spiders who couldn't climb up the slippery sides. Excellent idea though, and the dragons are keen and threatening to build castles.

Cutting board - I think the curvature would kybosh this idea.

Serving tray - getting close I think!

Box for jewelry - forced to admit that I have more boxes than jewelry as my late husband developed a habit of making them for me, and then taught my son. I had to start buying things to put in them. And then every time a new dragon appears they raid the boxes and claim a bit to wear because dragons can't resist shiny things so the boxes are all emptying as the dragon population increases.

Wall shelves for small knick knacks - again, forced to admit that I've been using shelving as an excuse to buy any nice piece of stone topped scrap furniture I can lay my hands on for quite some time so I can use all the pretty stones for shelves. In my house 'run out of shelf space' means I've run out of space to put more shelves. I do have a nice collection of interesting stone shelves though!

Coffee table - aaaaand again I've been collecting stone topped ones. Have a lovely one right by the bed with scaly marble that looks like a dragon, with sea-dragon feet. Even the garden is filling up with stone tables.

Bench - if I had more this would be high on the list. But I only have two so unless a load more appear tomorrow...

"The dragons want snow skis!!" - oh dear, I see you can speak dragon... They are planning a trip to go and visit their Auntie Estrela if it snows later this year. She has a bigger mountain than ours and there is a ski resort there.

OK, current ideas involve something like this...



...which is taken from this site.

We can cut the staves in half, lay them side by side possibly with the wider bits in the middle and the narrower ones to the outside, and have the shaped ends all at one end because it seems a shame to hide them from view as they are so interesting, and instead of metal handles we can use rope ones. Then it can be a serving platter, a fruit bowl, and a dragon-sledge for when they go visiting the Serra da Estrela. And knowing those dragons they can press it into service as a drawbridge too when they can find an excuse to use one.

Keep the ideas coming though, just in case more turn up!

Do you practise yoga at all Burra? I think they might make good yoga curvature planks with some end modification:


source

I'm not sure what the optimum curvature needs to be though.

Burra Maluca wrote:OK, current ideas involve something like this...

OK, I was thinking along those lines, but with taller legs to be a foot stool or a "sit-upon" when you need to be fairly low to the ground, but don't bend well enough any more to actually sit on the ground. Sigh, I can still kneel if the surface is soft, but sitting cross-legged was never my strong suit. If I need to sit to sort through my lowest sewing drawer, I sit on a footstool that's approximately 6" tall. I was lucky and found an old set of sofa legs to make my foot stool out of.

Jay Angler wrote:

Burra Maluca wrote:OK, current ideas involve something like this...

OK, I was thinking along those lines, but with taller legs to be a foot stool or a "sit-upon" when you need to be fairly low to the ground, but don't bend well enough any more to actually sit on the ground. Sigh, I can still kneel if the surface is soft, but sitting cross-legged was never my strong suit. If I need to sit to sort through my lowest sewing drawer, I sit on a footstool that's approximately 6" tall. I was lucky and found an old set of sofa legs to make my foot stool out of.

I like this. Is multi-functional to begin with and could also easily be turned into a stool, foot stool or seat of about any height.

Not nearly as useful. Unless you need a tabletop candle holder...