Making A Slab Stand by David Johnson When displaying a bonsai, the tree always looks best on a matching stand. The same applies to the container in which the tree is grown. (What constitutes an appropriate stand or container for a given tree is the subject for another important discussion.) This article will touch on the subject of stands by following the process of building one. The difficulty of having a hobby with limited access to supplies or knowledge can sometimes force you to improvise. Some of us try our hands at building pots, others at building stands while still others try both. Whether these attempts are successful or not will be left to the judgement of viewers. Both pottery and woodworking are skills mastered over many years and it is difficult for amateurs to cheat time...but we still try. I needed a low (in height) stand to display a literati jack pine. The stand needed to be low to match the narrowness of the treešs trunk and lightness of the foliage mass. This is similar to matching the trunk diameter to the depth of the pot. A very low-legged stand might be suitable but another option could be a slab. A slab is a slice of wood cut across grain through a tree trunk. If cut at the base or at the buttress root/trunk area, the edge will be irregular making it look more natural and interesting. Sometimes slabs are made by cutting through burls showing even greater irregular shape and grain. I thought of making my own slab stand when one of my neighbours cut down a large spruce with a three-foot diameter trunk at the base. I asked for permission to cut a slab off what was left of the stump. With a chainsaw, I cut off a rough slab about 3¸ inches thick. The height of the slab had to be reduced to bring it closer in thickness to the bonsaišs trunk diameter. Ideally the slab height should be less than the trunk diameter so that slab height, trunk diameter and pot depth would not be the same and thus repeated three times. I was concerned about reducing the height of the slab too much since that could cause it to easily break due to the weaker end-grain cut. [It would have been better if the finished slab had turned out thinner for display with this jack pine (pinus banksiana).] Being a woodworking amateur, I thought a band saw might be able to cut off the rough edge to reduce the height but the slab was too big. Then I considered running it through a stationary planer but it was too difficult to cut across the grain which is on end on the slab. Then I borrowed my brother-in lawšs electric hand-planer but found that although it did a pretty good job of smoothing the slab, it might take me a year or two to finish the job. Not wanting to let this story sound like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, I sought and received some good advice from Journal editor Dierk Neugebauer. Dierk suggested I use a router by setting up a frame around the slab to support the router while I took the wood off layer by layer. I tried to make the frame and even had a sheet of wood that already had a recessed portion for my routeršs face but I found the whole assembly would be too large to accommodate the slab. Instead I used the router freehand on the relatively flat surfaces created by the electric planer and worked it from the outside inward. The plan was to router off the last bit in the centre. This worked out pass after pass. When the slab was close to the right height, I used the electric planer to finish it off. I used a steel square to check for straightness across the top and bottom and also to maintain a uniform height throughout. After consulting some guys at work, I followed their suggestion to use a hand belt sander to finish the job. Again, my brother-in-law (bless him) stood up to the plate and handed me his sander. The sander worked well and helped to reduce the height even further. Throughout this project I had two problems to deal with. One was to keep the rough bark intact and attached to the slab for aesthetic reasons (this is bonsai after all and rough bark is precious). The other problem came from the slab being of relatively green wood since the tree was just cut this spring and the slab removed mid-summer. Green wood can crack as it dries unevenly. Club member Grace Wicht recommended a product called "Pentacryl" from Lee Valley (naturally) which when applied resists cracking. The bark seemed to chip off easily so I had to be careful when handling it. You have to be very careful when using the planer and be aware of the direction of its rotation so that you do not rip off some of the bark like I did when I went over the edge. In other words you can have the tool rotate by cutting toward the centre of the slab from outside the edge (bark/wood junction). Do not allow it to rotate away from the slab. I saved the broken-off pieces and tried to glue some back on but matching up the pieces and the bark was difficult. However, I did glue sections of the bark that were separating from the slab and held them in place with clamps. I could have used surgical tubing because of the irregular shape but I did not have any at the time. I put some of the sanding dust into the glue so that any glue not completely wiped off would take some of the stain that would be applied later. The "Pentacryl" worked well but the suggestion on the bottle to wrap the slab in a damp cloth and put it into a plastic bag caused some mould build-up on the wood. I removed the wet cloth, sprayed on some fungicide and exposed the slab to more air. The only small cracks that developed on the slab occurred before the application of "Pentacryl." The mould left dark stains in the light coloured wood so I used a "Minwax" tip to remove dark spots by applying some bleach to the surface and then re-doing the darkest areas. This helped but did not entirely remove the stain. Intending to create a uniform colour on the already dark bark, I used a dark walnut stain. This covered up the colour difference caused by the chipped bark. On the top which was very light in colour, I used a lighter walnut stain. This maintained a contrast but a very diminished one. Most stands from Asia are dark in colour in order to have the eye focus on the tree and to a lesser extent, the container. (After I varathane the bottom of the slab, I will put some small coasters underneath to make it easier to lift the slab and avoid breaking bark off at the edge.) To secure and protect the bark area, I applied varathane. I did the same to the top to protect it from scratches, something you have be very careful about. AVOID DRAGGING POTS ACROSS THE SURFACE OF STANDS AND SCRATCHING THEM. Also of concern is the water still remaining in the wood and the risk of trapping it in because, since I "polyurethaned" the top, I would have to do the same to the bottom to maintain a uniform sealing of the wood. A salesperson at Lee Valley recommended slowly drying the slab in a cool area before sealing the bottom. Another point to consider is the shape of the slab at the front. If it is correct to make an analogy with rock slabs, then Mr. Susumu Nakamurašs comment that the front of the slab should move inward slightly at the centre holds true. A slight inward movement invites the viewer towards the tree. The slab should also have movement that compliments the movement of the tree. In the case of this slab, when I displayed a tree on it, I rotated the slab to couple this inward movement with the overall movement of the slab and tree. These naturally random slab shapes mean that you may need a number of them to fit various situations in terms of size and slab movement. Alternatively, you could just cut a pattern in a natural shape out of a piece of end-grained wood. Grace Wicht mentioned to me that a fellow in the United States who made slabs has stopped making them. This means that us amateurs will have to fill the gap if we want a slab. Perhaps this article will encourage others to build their own slab stand.