Home Again, Home Again

  We have been away for a couple of weeks enjoying a few days in Horsham England on our way to Lanzarote Spain. 

  We got back  four days ago and given jet lag and all the other things that await you ( a fall cold too) on your return I didn't get back into the shop until yesterday. I decided on a quick little project that recycled a piece of  wood from a dresser that I picked up off the street a while ago.  The inspiration was two more pieced of furniture we picked up on Saturday morning. 

 

  I took a chest of drawers apart and this is the last drawer front left. Obviously it has been  ignored and was laying in a corner until this project came along.

  

  You can see the trim that was nailed onto the front. This piece is solid hard wood, though not one piece. I worked around the nail homes to make my project. 

all the pieces 

  This is a project that is quick and easy if you do things in the correct order. 

First I ripped the board to width and then used my router table and round over bit to shape the smallest piece, before cutting it off the board. I then rounded over the end and cut the middle sized piece, last I rounded over both ends of the longest piece.

  The little foot goes at one end.  In this case I glued it into place.

  The three pieces go together to make a nice little portable bookend. Actually it doesn't need to be glued together at all, but I didn't want the little foot to get lost.

   To make this a more personal item I did some wood burning. After I burned the initials, I stained them  with transparent water colour paint. It just just a hit of colour to the burned portion.

  This is a quick project that can be personalized or customized in tonnes of ways.

cheers, ianw

p.s. it is nice to travel, but it is nice to get back home too.

Horsham, UK. high street. 

a beach on Lanzarote

 

Picking the Right Wood.

  Sometimes I make my projects from the wood I have on my shelves. Other times I choose the wood for my project to match or stand out in relation to the decor that will surround it. Still other times I choose the wood for its mechanical                 characteristics, like weight, strength or resistance to rot and weathering. 

  If you are a follower of the Harry Potter's stories their wands were made from a variety of woods with magical inclusions. My grand daughter's birthday is this coming weekend and I was asked to provide wands for her and her fairy princess guests.

12 inch wands with bells attached,
there will be ribbon attached later.

  The initial thought for the wands was to simply buying  dowel and spray it gold. I decided against dowel for two reasons, these wands are bass wood which is lighter than dowel of sufficient diameter, basswood is also less likely to break if stepped on. If it does break and it will certainly not splinter leaving a dagger like end the way a dowel can.

 I was easy enough to rip off 3/4 pieces of bass wood and then use a round over bit on my router table to shape the sticks. 

 It took more time to work with the wood than dowel, after all it had to be shaped, sanded and then painted. I considered putting unicorn tail hair or phoenix feather into the heart of these wands, but, I suspect that nine four year old fairy princesses filled with cake and ice cream will cause enough chaos without extra magic.