Baby B's Berceau
Mike Brazeau
>Our second grandchild is due in a few days, this time the product of our son and his wife, so a second Berceau was in order. This time I won the race. It is my first major project off my new Oneway 2436. Guess what, the turning components don�t look much different than for the one I completed last year on my 50 year old Delta Rockwell Homecraft � but it was sure fun turning on the new lathe!
Second time around made the task somewhat easier, and improved on some dimensions to make it easier to remove the cradle from the stand, but it still took me somewhere in the order of 50 hours. The wood for the turned end-posts and stretcher spindles and a couple of other pieces came from a Cherry tree I felled in our woodlot in 2000 and had milled the following spring. The balance of the cherry came from a local source, a woodworker that mills his own wood and dries it in his barn loft. It is finished with two coats of heated (70 deg C) boiled linseed oil, followed by Johnson�s floor wax. The final hand waxing and polishing and just caressing the Cherry with the eager anticipation of our new grandchild, was probably the most enjoyable time.
This French Heritage Cradle (or berceau) is modeled on one found in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, the first pioneer settlement on the west bank of the Mississippi River.
Thanks for looking.
Mike