Wooden Footballs!

Here are a few wooden footballs that I have made over the past year. I had a friend beg me to make a Clemson football, so I finally relented… My Tide beat them in the National Championship this year, so all was well. I start with the basic framework for these and then glue them together before putting on the lathe and turning down. After I sand for hours and stain, I apply custom vinyl and apply 3 coats of poly. To finish off, I drill the top holes and add the white buck skin laces. These are official size, but a whole lot more deadly if someone were to catch one in the noggin! The only issue with these is that EVERYONE wants to touch these and toss them around… They are very hearty as I have had a few get dropped and not even leave a scratch. I made all of these out of choice pine as I thought it had the best grain/character… The toughest part is ripping 2×4’s on an angle from corner to corner for the 16 slivers required to fill in the roundness. After almost losing a finger, I made a jig that I can secure the 2×4 to and safely run through the table saw.
These balls are hollow, but only a cavity about the size of your fist. What I didn’t tell my friend is that inside his Clemson football is a nice color picture of Nick Saban!
Hope you like the post.
Roll Tide,
Patrick

-- Patrick "Pacman" Cobb, North Carolina