Carved Table for U.S.S. California Submarine

USS California (SSN 781) Chiefs in front of the WWII Submarine Memorial in Groton, CT. (U.S. Navy Photo by John Narewski)

One of our Navy’s sub bases is not too far from here, and the Chief of the U.S.S. California Submarine dropped off a large slab of California Redwood ($500 on Ebay) and requested the ships logo be carved into the surface. Being from New England, I’ve never had the opportunity to carve Redwood. All the carvers on the West coast carve it all the time and I’ve heard nothing but great things about it. It was really nice to carve, soft but tight grain to hold detail. Great wood.

He provided the logo…

I added the ribbon…

and then created the layout…

The CNC carved the shapes and text. All the textures and forms were then hand carved with small power carving tools. It was finished with 3 coats of gloss polyurethane at the Chief’s request.

Thankfully, the Chief was thrilled and showed it off at a large Navy banquet.

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