Project Information
This year's beer swap was a quick one to fill in between other swaps. It was agreed to concentrate on the beer first and throw together an item to go along with it. Since I had made one of these for last year's swap, I thought that would be something that I could finish in the time allotted.
The wood I chose was Maclura pomifera aka osage orange aka bois d'arc (bow wood), hedge apple, horse apple, etc. It is a very hard wood but surprisingly, it works fairly well. This wood came from a tree on our previous property which had been killed by our mule who used it as a scratching post, and by doing so, had rubbed all the bark off about rump high. I saved a length of trunk which I split in two, treated for bugs and saved for 7-8 years.
I started with this:
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The only bug tracks found were in the sap portion (yay Kenny!). The rest had that beautiful color.
I drilled two holes in the stainless opener blank and whittled down a sliver of walnut which I drove through one of the holes to create a long peg which was cut into very short pegs. The scales were aligned up with the blank and short counter bores drilled into them for added strength while gluing (pics 4&5).
I glued them up (pic 6 (yes, I made 3 in case I messed up 1, or 2)) using G-flex which offered a long working time for alignment issues.
I bought some cheap sanding drums for my drill press which I used for most of the shaping, including the finger grooves.
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To round over the sides of the scales, I first started with a belt sander held in my vise, but there were issues with the sander and it quickly broke 2 new belts. So what to do? Fellow LJ Putty to the rescue once again! He had a disc sanding attachment for his lathe which made quick work of that part. Thanks again Putty!!
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Finish was spray-on poly, 3 coats.
The beers:
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Thanks for looking and THANKS KENNY for a great swap!
The wood I chose was Maclura pomifera aka osage orange aka bois d'arc (bow wood), hedge apple, horse apple, etc. It is a very hard wood but surprisingly, it works fairly well. This wood came from a tree on our previous property which had been killed by our mule who used it as a scratching post, and by doing so, had rubbed all the bark off about rump high. I saved a length of trunk which I split in two, treated for bugs and saved for 7-8 years.
I started with this:
The only bug tracks found were in the sap portion (yay Kenny!). The rest had that beautiful color.
I drilled two holes in the stainless opener blank and whittled down a sliver of walnut which I drove through one of the holes to create a long peg which was cut into very short pegs. The scales were aligned up with the blank and short counter bores drilled into them for added strength while gluing (pics 4&5).
I glued them up (pic 6 (yes, I made 3 in case I messed up 1, or 2)) using G-flex which offered a long working time for alignment issues.
I bought some cheap sanding drums for my drill press which I used for most of the shaping, including the finger grooves.
To round over the sides of the scales, I first started with a belt sander held in my vise, but there were issues with the sander and it quickly broke 2 new belts. So what to do? Fellow LJ Putty to the rescue once again! He had a disc sanding attachment for his lathe which made quick work of that part. Thanks again Putty!!
Finish was spray-on poly, 3 coats.
The beers:
Thanks for looking and THANKS KENNY for a great swap!
