This is my 3rd bottle opener that I have made…but the first I feel turned out pretty well…its a gift for my father in law Ted…we are headed to visit grandma and grandpa tomorrow for Easter and I wanted to make this final bottle opener that I had bought…

The first two I tried to use the thread insert that came with the opener and i could never get them set right and had to glue on the stopper in the end…never perfect…

This one I realized the bottle opener screw threads were the same size as my pen turning mandrel so I stuck in on my mandrel and it worker great…

This is a piece of mahogany that I picked up from LJ John Ormsby. I finished it with my usual pen turners friction polish…

I made this simple little hat rack last weekend out of red oak scraps I picked up out of the Rockler Scrap bin a couple months ago…the goal was to clear off my dresser top since my hats took so much room…I love hats and I have a growing bald spot to prove it…

I decided to add the shelf so that I could finally display my teacher of the year memorabilia that had been gathering dust since last year…

I turned the hat hangers/knobs my self out of some scrap walnut…they are not all the same…which I like…they actually took the most time…

I finished it in BLO (boiled linseed oil) which was nice and easy…but boy it still smells a week later…so I think I rubbed too much on (?)...

Matt

Which pumpkin was “carved” in 3 minutes by a lumberjock?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

This started out as our Halloween Lawn display…and the theme seemed right to turn the head stones into signs warning not to take too many pieces of candy!!!

The Left headstone says: “Take one—have some fun!”

The Middle says: “Take two and you may feel blue…”

The third says: “Take Three and you may end of like ME!” as in take three pieces and you will end up in this graveyard for ETERNITY…

This became a good contest project because we recently tore out a section of fence and it became a perfect coffin…then I added the grave “stones”...

This will come in handy tomorrow night because we have two young daughters===and my wife and I both love going trick or treat with them…thus we need to leave a box of candy out…

I may also rig up the head on a string…and hide so if a kid takes too many I will pull the head up out of the grade…

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Jonnie and Linda are two great neighbors and friends. Since we moved into our house 7 years ago we have shared some good dinners…Jonnie and Linda are always there if we need them and we are glad we live close.

A couple months ago Jonnie brought over a little table and asked if I could make him a pair out of some scrap wood…the tables are actually used as little benches for sitting around the fire outside. He asked for them to be the exact same dimensions…

At first I was going to just use lamintated pine from HD…and they would be real quick with some scraps added in…for whatever reason they day I went to HD they did not have any laminated pine that was wide enough…so I remembered some old pine shelving at home…and decided to go home and use that…

As I cut it into strips it was pretty warped…so I looked for some other scraps to blend in…I had just enough purple heart to mix it in with the pine…so it went from a scrap wood table to a fancy scrap wood table pretty quick…

Since these will be used outside I put 3 coats of spar varnish on them…

pine, purple heart, fir (the legs)

birdhouse, adirondack chair, fireplace cart, soccer goal, tool caddy

Well this post is long overdue…all of these projects were completed last summer—-but I never posted them since they seemed like small projects at the time…then recently, as spring hit…and we worked on our yard so much I found myself sitting in the re-built adirondack, looking over the yard and projects and realized they are all a part of my wood working journey…which for me, its this journey and the documentation of it that keeps me going here at LJ’s…

The first project is my re-built adirondack…which was originally posted here kind of a funny story (or sad)...this chair was supposed to be my “nice” chair…I built it one year after my first chair—-and you can see the two compared as they are today…When I built the 2nd chair i decided to cover all the plugs and lengthened the back slats for more comfort…it looked great…

But the chair was always a little more wobbly…then one day after about a year after building it I was sitting in it on my deck…the deck was not completed in the back like it is now with our trellis/bench…the legs of the chair extended too far over the gap in the deck (and sadly) and my GIRTH was too much for the legs as they got jammed into the opening…and the chair broke…I was laughing so hard I began to cry…and being able to laugh I told my daughter to race inside and get mommy to come laugh at me…below is a picture of the new strenght pieces…

You can see the leg is doubled up…the back support is doubled up AND the thick 2X piece was added…you cant see the angled cut I had to make to all it to fit in flush across the bottom…

I think the chairs strength was compromised (yes—-beyond my weight and the legs jamming in the deck openning) because I drilled the holes too deep for the purpose of plugging…this was my first “fancy” wood working…but a chair full of too deeply drilled holes…is not good for a belly my size…

So the chair sat…the nice chair…and last summer I finally took it apart and re-built it…adding an extra back stretcher and doubling up some of the other boards…this re-working really strengthened the chair…and then I sanded it all down completely and added 3 coats of spar varnish…it looks really good…way better then the first version…i love the golden finish now on it which would not have happened had I put the finish on right away…

Bird house #2—-this is also a re-build…I build this with my daughter our of scrap wood…and it sat in our yard all winter…no birds came…so I was worried that something inside was poking through (I thought that some nails may be poking through and the screw that attaches it to the pole may be coming up)...so…I took it down…and decided to saw it off from its base…you can see the cut…I found some bird poop inside…but no dangerous items poking through…so I decided to supe it up…to cover the cut I wrapped a new redwood base…and put in a new floor—-just to make sure nothing pokes the birds)...I also added a longer bird perch…and a porch—-to hold the bird seed (before we set some bird seed on the flat base and it just blew away in the wind…so now the bird seed is in a protected “bowl”)...and the last step I added a hinge on the back…I had seen other bird houses that have clean out openings…so since i had cut the whole thing open I thought this was a good time to add the hinge…then I might seem a little smarter for cutting the whole thing open in the first place…

here is what the birdhouse looked like at the end of last summer:

Fireplace Cart—-well I blew it on this one…this cart was made of deck scraps and is super handy…I just forgot to take photos of it BEFORE we put the fireplace on it…so you cant see the cool design which was the inspiration for this table top…either way the cart has made it really nice to be able to move the super heavy fireplace around the patio.

Soccer Goal: this was kind of s quicky…one day I just decided it was time to use the old twisted 2×4’s in the workshop rafters…our lawn is not too huge…but this mini goal is fun for drills and mini games with my daughters…and should be handy as we train for next season…its small enough to move into the sideyard and out of the way when we dont want it around…

Tool Caddy…I JUST REALIZED I HAVE NO PICTS—-WILL ADD…I built this last summer when I wanted to try out my new dado blades…and I also wanted a small proiject to try using/mixing epoxy before I used it on my sail boat build…I had never used either…and I wanted to practice using the epoxy in small batches before I needed to do huge batches and glue ups on the boat. This project is super handy when needing to work outside or travel with tools…its not too pretty but functions well…in my shop I find myself storing my most important tools so I know where to find them …

This is the top end of a used wine barrel—-stained with red wine (cabernet?) that I made into a Lazy Susan for my secretary…I was a bit late (last weds was Secretary’s Day) but it took a little more time to break it down and then glue it back up. So I am excited to give it to Julie tomorrow!

The barrel pieces are joined differently, but to use them for wood working you have to pull them apart first—-then re-glue them up…otherwise they would not stay together…I have seen some joined with metal pins (so be careful before you saw them up!!!), others with dowels…these were just pulled together and held with grooves down their edges (this is just for the barrel tops/bottoms)...The staves have nothing joining them—-just pulled together with metal straps and I guess as long as they are wet they stay wine-tight…?

The hardest part of the glue up was that it was ROUND…and I put on the first few clamps and ran into trouble with the ends of the pieces…but it came out and is strong. I need to get a strap clamp for the next one…

The wood is Hungarian Oak…which is really nice—-lots of character…you see lots of barrel furniture in napa that is barely sanded to keep the character…for me there is a fine balance of keeping that character—-with showing off the wood…I prefer more sanding and in this case the oak had lots of detail… The insider of the barrel (underside of lazy susan) shows the wine…and the smell is strong…I did not finish it…

There are 3 main types of oak used for the wine barrels…French Oak, American Oak, and increasingly Hungarian oak…they all make the wine taste MUCH different…there is a winery where they have each type of wood side by side—-and each year they pour the EXACT same wine into the barrels…and after a few months in those barrels the wine tastes much different.

I put 3 coast of oil on it—-Renaissance food (nuts?) oil so that Julie will be able to put food directly on it if she wants…

The winery “stamp” or engraving is for “Snow Winery” which I have never heard of…but there are HUNDREDS of wineries in the region….the wineries use the barrels for only 2-3 seasons…and then sell them off to small producers or brokers…many (sadly) become planters…

I have been wanting to build one of these for a long time ever since my friend and colleague came to my house a few years ago to make several as gifts…but I never took the time to acquire wine barrels until a month ago when I was driving home from work and saw a sign for a bunch of for sale…it was $40 for the entire used wine barrel and the guy broke them down for me in minutes because I want to make furniture out of them…

Thanks for looking!

Matt

Well I know that we have a long way yet to go in 2011…but when they award DADDY OF THE YEAR…my name may be on the trophy for this fun little project I completed this past week.

My daughters are still at an age where they play together…and I think I want to preserve that forever…so when they started watching movies on horses and talking about horses I got the idea to make them a surprise birthday present that I would give to both of them together between their two birthdays…

This project was made completely out of SCRAP WOOD…(except the 1/4 inch ply)...the frame pieces were ripped from scraps from my sail boat project, the mahogany trim comes from John Ormsby's wood pile the base was a scrap 3/8” ply I almost missed…but ended up being the perfect size of 24×24 inches….

The barn has a retractable roof (lol)...or at least the front half comes off to give more play access…it hooks into slots I made in the back half of the roof…it took me a while to figure out how to secure it…I thought about hinges…but I am happy I went this way…the roof is also trimmed in an old pallet I salvaged from years ago…

The biggest mistake I made—-making most of the barn BEFORE buying the horses…this resulted in a front cross piece that was too short for the horses…so I had to go back and cut the cross piece—-but then the doorway was too flimsy…so I solved that by adding the loft…I may still go back and make a little hatch for the loft and a ladder…

I also forgot to take off the sticker from the plywood…which is the only thing I bought…

Now its time to get back to boat building! Actually I had done NOTHING in my shop since January…so this was my—-get back to work project and it was fun…

MAtt

While “overdue” gifts may be my style…Overdue pens are not some new style you have never heard of…This weekend I finally finished a set of three long overdue pens that friends had requested and although long overdue they turned out pretty nice.

The bright red pen is for my friend and neighbor Jonnie. One day, a long time ago, he was with me in my shop when he spotted the red pen blank. From that day I had always planned on making it for him. Recently Jonnie mentioned that they may move—-and the first thought that came to me was that I better get to that pen! I made it last weekend and it was my first pen in quite a while—unfortunately I bunged it up a bit (sorry Jonnie!)...I took a chunk out that is now hidden by the pen clip. But the color in person is still really nice…

The other two pens are for the daughters of a colleague and friend at my school. Last winter I made he and his son (Ryan) a pen for Christmas…

I made Ryan an acrylic pen…and when he took it home his little sister and wanted one too! I put the pens on my gift list—-which seems to be long since I try to make most of my stuff for other people…when I made the pen for Jonnie I decided it would be nice to finally do the series all at once. That weekend I bought the girls’ blanks new (they are not the original ones their dad had picked) so that I could try a new style…

So far I had only made 7mm Slimline Pens…but always wanted to try a more sophisticated pen…I bought pre-drilled and prepped blanks so that I could do them faster and get to them this week…I highly recommend pre-drilled/prepped blanks!!! They are a bit more expensive…but it made it a lot easier to get to them.

The girls’ pens are both European Pen sets. They use 7mm tubes but one is longer so that a tenon can be cut into them for the middle ring. Both tenons came out well…had to take them on and off the lathe several times to be sure all the parts would fit and they came out well!

I sanded all of them to 600 and then used friction polish.

This project started with just the base of an old oak table Sarah’s parents gave to us quite a few years ago…the table top on it has long been gone…but every time I went through the side yard I just felt I could not get rid of the base…thinking I could use it for wood on another project…or as another table…

As the summer came to a close I built a little cart for our outdoor patio stove…with my new miter saw. I thought the design on the stove cart was so cool with all the clean miter cuts I realized that it could be a great table top too. And since I still had lots of deck wood leftover I could make a table top.

First I took apart the base and sanded it all down…it was pretty dirty and warn after several years in our side yard…but overall I realized I could use it…next I started making the cuts on my redwood scraps. When we built this deck several years ago they delivered pieces 4 feet longer then we needed—-for free…
New tools and techniques:
WIth my new miter saw I have really been having fun…all these years I have had an old used one that was tough to keep locked at 90 degrees…so I rarely used it unless the cut did not have to be perfect…finally I got a new Dewalt miter saw and ooooohhhhh boy…had I known I would have bought a new saw a long time ago…I find that I am using it on all cuts that I can instead of my table saw…

I started wondering how I was going to glue up the odd pieces…so I got in my head I could try pocket screwing from the bottom…I had bought a kreg jig set up at the Woodworking Show but never really used it…I dont think it was such a good solution because the pieces did not stay flush on the top of the table???? So the table top received a lot of work from the belt sander…

It did sand down really smooth and the first two coats of spar varnish looked suuuuuper good…but then I ran out of what I was using…found a clear coat of the same brand that I had and tried adding a 3rd coat today and I am not happy with all the bubbling…I have a lot to learn in this area…

So I may go back and sand it all down…but not sure…

I added the redwood feet to give strength to the base and I think it worked super nicely.

I also tried INLAY for the first time…haha…I had a huge gap so I routed out a section on each end and laid in s strip of walnut. also there is a small triangle of another very hard wood from wood working show last year…after finishing it does not show as much of contrast as I had hoped…

Last year I completed a little bedside table for my 7 year old Hannah…and of course…the moment it was done my 3 year old was asking where her table was…so a few weeks ago as I was waiting for the finish to dry on another table top and I started to sketch this little table up…then immediately started making the cuts…had the pieces all cut out that day…and the construction done the next weekend…I love the short projects!

I wanted it to match Hannah’s table in the woods…but the leg design was an attempt at some new methods and tools. With the legs it was only the second time I used my new dado blades…and they worked great to make the legs inter-lock.

The keen eye will notice that in Hannah's table I used doug fir on the legs and on this table I used redwood.

The rim of the table has birdseye maple with mitered corners around a piece of mahogony—-the same woods as Hannah’s table…

The build was much easier due to a new Dewalt Miter saw—-wow…it is so nice to get clean cuts…and the other reason why this table was much easier is that I did not use dowels to put it all together like in Hannah’s table…I did put 4 dowels in the top of the legs to put the top on.

This table is a bit smaller to fit better next to the smaller bed.

Fluidity Contest Note: While you may not see motion—-you have to imagine beautiful vines that will grow and blow in the evening napa winds…this project was literally built this week—-so no vines to show yet…but once there are vines this project (i think ) will fit the “fluidity”...not to mention that this week my wife and I celebrate 10 great years—-and we built this side by side from start to finish which was a lot of fun—-can you see the fluidity in the communiation we had over the last four days?

The Build: This week we returned from our summer trip and instead of returning to my sail boat build decided to finally build a project that I have thought about for several years. In the end it took us 4 days from start to finish…

A few years ago my step son and I built this deck ... and the plan had always been to finish it with a trellis to add privacy to our yard. The problem was that I did not want to dig post holes in the space that the trellis would go…and so I came up with this design…I came up with a “sandwiched” post series. The posts of the trellis straddle of the joists in the back of the deck.

I was very worried that this would not be strong enough to support growing vines so then I came up with adding the bench which looks great but also becomes a very important structural component to the overall design.

We used copper piping to bridge the trellis supports…and it looks super nice in the evenings as the sun shines on it…you see the deck is in a perfect spot to sit back and watch the sunset…thus another good reason for the bench…

One of the best parts was when my neighbor looked out the window and could not believe that I came up with the design…I really like that part of the project…the double 2×4’s with the trimmed top piece, the copper and the bench really look nice and unique—-i lamented for several years whether I should just go out and buy some sheets of lattice…now I am super glad I never did that…this ended up super nice…maybe our best yet!

Pictures:

The first two pictures are overall shots…I wish the copper shined the way it does in person.

Pictures 3 and 4 show the “sandwich” structure…we put 1/2 inch by 6 inch long bolts through the trellis and bench supports…there was quite a bit of “fluidity”in the trellis at this point…but I knew with the bench it would all become more rigid…

Picture 5 is another overall shot…except for the scraps and hose in the shot I like it because it shows the dry creek we put in last winter flowing to the deck…and the dirt around shows the last remaining area of our two year back yard makeover…or 3 years???

Last photo shows the nice wide bench…and the opening for the vines where we will put a nice pot down inside…or build a planter box inside…but I think a nice square, colorful pot will look really nice…

THANKS TO MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE SARAH…I really enjoyed building this with you…I think it turned out super nice and may be the nicest project so far!

Well it is about time that I add a new project…I have actually spent more time in the shop this Jan/Feb then this time of year then usual but much of my time has been on shop organization and projects related to my shop that I hope to post soon as well…

But this little project turned out really nice…I struggled with the finishing a bit and have a long way to go with finishing…but I really enjoyed building this…once I had a plan it went together really fast. I made the top with a strip of birdseye maple in the middle and I love how it turned out. I cant remember the name of the wood on the outside—-dah….but I got it when I was in So-Cal at Armstrong Woods (great store) and I think the wood was from South America—-my father in law thought it looked like mahogany…

I constructed the table with dowels—-which I had never done—-a “more” advanced technique for me…(lol beyond glue and screws!!!). I was able to use the side boring feature on my SHOPSMITH…which worked out really well since i set up the placement and of the holes and repeated the process for perfect placement…

The legs are from 2×4 dough fir—-construction grade but I really love the grain on this wood…and think it compliments the other woods very well…the cross pieces are pine…

I struggled with the finish a bit…but it looks pretty good…after several coats…I had some Deft from another project and I think it sat too long…

As you can see this is for my daughter Hannah…and she is really happy with it…now she can set a bedtime snack/drink and book next to her bed…on the carpet its a little wobbly but I wanted it to fit in that spot without widening the leagues…

Thanks for looking…Tom’s Chair is next…

Matt

Well…sorry about the pictures…I was madly shining this one up and forgot to take pictures because I was in a hurry to get to the surprise party…wasnt going to post it until I realized the pictures from the Party turned out pretty good…

Meet my colleague James…a fellow history teacher and a truly good person…today was his surprise 50th B-day…as you can see from the picts he was surprised by his wife who had been e-mailing many of us for a couple weeks to set up his birthday at a local wine shop…it was a good time…

I made this for James because he truly loves good wine…and I wanted to make him a nice stopper. This was the first time I used one of these blanks from wood craft that laminated many thin strips of dyed woods…it looks really cool compared to how it starts out as the blank.

The stopper is stainless steel, large and heavy compared to many I use…so I wanted the stopper to be hefty…

The 3rd picture was when he came in the door…and just before FRANK who was hiding…and then he had just opened the package with the stopper when the cake came out…

Happy 50th James…

Well…after starting a LURES FOR GRANT drive MONTHS ago…I finally finished my 4 lures for Grant yesterday…and since his mom was in town I was able to give them to her personally.

Check the link above to hear more about this story…Grant is a nice young man who has now been in Wisconsin for treatment for APA (aplastic anemia—-I think that is the name) which is a horrible blood disease. I told the LJ’s about it and asked for donations and boy oh boy did the LJ’s come through…

But I have had such a crazy summer that I just finished my own…

For those of you that followed back then Grant is still at Ronald McDonald House in Wisconsin receiving treatment…he is doing better but is approaching nearly one year in the hospital…and still counting after numerous setbacks…

The good news is that his mom is in town for 10 days to get him set up for school back here in Napa…he will start as a “home hospital” student—-kind of like independent study and hopefully will come back mid semester…or mid-year…

It has been a looooong battle…seeing his mom today was great…

The lures…well can you tell they are my first??? I had a hard time with all of them…including drilling and breaking a tiny drill bit off in my finger yesterday…(its ok)...

Thanks to all who participated…you are all my heros!!!

If you still want to learn more look at my two blog entries on the topic—-starting with the link here…

These pens are a couple of small gifts to my friends “Fred and Trudy” who came to help my wife and I several months ago…see an explanation for FRED who helped (or I helped him) when we built the shed earlier in the summer…

Both pieces of wood come from the pen trade…wood I honor very much because it comes from other Lumberjocks…when Fred came to visit earlier I showed him the nice pieces of wood and he like this piece of curly maple…you can see the really nice grain on it…in person it shines very much…

The other pen is Paduak…I have never used either and I really liked both…

Matt

Well…this is the next and most important project in our two year back yard makeover…if you are familiar with my projects you will see that many are projects for my back yard…fences, gates, deck, adirondack chairs, picnic table..

This project is the most important because there is no way I could have done this on my own…if you take a closer look at those projects listed above you will see that I am still in the beginner category…when we started our back yard makeover we knew nothing would be perfect but that we would learn a lot and we could re-do anything we wanted…so far I think we are doing pretty well…we have come a long way this spring with a new sprinkler system and lawn…first time in two years that we can run around and play on a lawn—-and it’s fantastic!

But there was a corner in the back that was reserved for the shed…I had aspirations of doing it on my own and had even bought a couple of shed books…skimmed through them and convinced myself i could do this…we also contemplated buying a kit many times to save money and an easier build…but we wanted this to look really nice and be sturdy…then when “Fred” and his wife “Trudy” (I will explain) came to visit they offered to come back and help us build a shed…

“Fred” is a person I have known for over 10 years…and I think is a great person…he builds custom homes—-beautiful custom homes…so I knew that building with him would be a great experience and we would have a great shed in the end that actually looked good—-and was safe…

As we were building I started to take pictures and then he got worried that I was going to post our project for all the world to see…although this was going well…he got a little nervous…so I told “Fred” that I would keep him anonymous…since you know he has quite a reputation (not that he has anything to worry about—-this is the only project in the back yard that is truly straight and square!!!)

On the first day we did the floor…since we only had a half day…day two was the big day…we completed the floor…did all the walls, siding and rafters for the roof…it was a long day…

Day three we almost finished with the roof and shingles…and the last day we hung the door and put up the trim.

The shed is 10×12…the walls are 7ft high…and i think the roof peeks at 11ft??? I learned a lot…especially that I could not have done this on my own…”Fred” was extremely patient with me…and my lack of knowledge—-strength—-and guts (kind of embarrassing but I cant get on the roof…I helped him re-roof his shop ten years ago and i still have nightmares…my two big toes turned black because i would only walk in one direction on the roof—-with my body ffacing down—-thus by the end of the day my toe nails were black from all the pressure on them all day…)...

In the end we have a nice shed…and it really finishes off the yard…we are down to two smaller sections…but at this point the yard is very live-a-ble…and the best part—-my one car garage—-is no longer full of junk—-and my shop is going to have tons of room when I am done…I emptied out my garage this week of all the stuff we are taking out…and wow…it will be sooo nice…

So—-i cant take too much credit for this one…but I learned a lot…and after losing my dad this past January its so nice to be able to still have someone in my life I can call Dad…THANKS DAD!!!

What a nice birthday weekend! I turned 39 today—-and spent the day finishing up my turnings for the Pen Trade…

If you are unfamiliar with the LJ Pen Trade…here is a write up about it. Either way…the box arrived last Thursday night…and I got only a brief moment to pop it open to check it out…got through only the top contents before I realized that I did not have a safe space to spread it all out and get a good luck with a 2 year old running all over and work the next day…so like a good boy with a birthday gift I waited…

Friday night…same deal…no time or place…so I waited…by Saturday morning the sun was out…and I took the box…spread it all out with a towel underneath—-good call…with the bright sun light I could really appreciate the wood—-and did i say the 2 year old was rampaging INSIDE…so I could PEACEFULLY look through all of it…

This was awesome…as other jocks have mentioned…it is an assortment or wood—-a true library of woods…it was really fun just to look at it all…

The top three pictures in the “zoom” are the pieces I made for the trade…a zebra wood pen, a winebarrel oak pen (see below for story on this), an olive wood steel wine stopper and a blood wood cork stopper. ( I hope everyone is ok with the wine stoppers—I checked with Tim and he thought it was cool—-and it is a big part of napa :) ).

The wine barrel pen is a true one of a kind…I took the wood from a used Napa Valley wine barrel that is soaked in wine—-unfortunately the wine soak is not too deep—-but if you look closely there is a red line in the grain that is from wine—-the wood I cut has a strong Cabernet Sauvignon aroma!!! (here is a link that shows a project and how i got the wine barrel tops).

All the pictures below are for the pen traders to get an update…I will ship it out tomorrow after school…

The box was in good condition and heavy…but smaller then I expected—-but after spreading it all out I could not believe how all that got in there…

ANd what that looks like spread out:

I wont add all the picts i took—-but if you click on any of these it takes you to photobucket and you can see many more…and they are sized better…

But here is what I added…

The top pieces have a real story—-they are authentic used wine barrel tops—-thus french oak…soaked in Cabernet Sauvignon…I was only going to put in the redwood…since it is a west coast wood…but then my wife came in the shop and asked about the barrel tops that have been siting there since i finished these.

I thought—-you are right!! This is very unique—-the aroma of wine is strong…so I went to breaking up the barrel top and cutting it down…I was real excited but then after cutting one piece up realized that the wine only soaked into the outside of the wood—-I found a few pieces that it soaked into much deeper—-and there is one that I taped together that will definitely have streaks of wine through it…

Here is a picture of the first break up of the wood—-when i was still excited…

I made one blank yesterday and turned it today (pictured above) and it looks great—-the wood is a truly gorgeous even though by the time I cut into it most of the wine was gone—-but there is a cool distint red line running through the pen that is definitely the wine…but one of the blanks should have much more red deeper.

Here are some wine stopper blanks and parts I added in addition to the redwood and barrel wood (one is blood wood and the other olive wood)—-one alreay has a dowel glued in…and the other i left out so you can use a mandrel if you want…pm me if you want help on this…lots of ways to do it…:

I regret not cutting up more yesterday…after i realized that the wine would not show I did not cut up more to blanks…and could not do more today after all that i did (the wine barrel pen i made was the last thing)...and heck it was my birthday…so i got a lot of time out there…

SO MY OFFER TO ALL JOCKS in this trade...now that I have turned one I will look for more wood that has the wine soaked into it and turn one so you can see what it loooks like and if you like it then I can always send you some…

Well…if you have read all this—-thanks…I really enjoyed it…after a tough start to 2009 it was the real motivator to get me out in the shop…it was super tough to get out there after my dad passed…but it was nice to get some time in the shop again the last two weekends…so this pen trade could have not been better timing for me!!!

Either way—-it was a nice way to spend the first day of year 39!!

Before last winter break I went on a massive pen and wine stopper making adventure—-the goal was to make a pen or wine stopper for everyone in the social studies department and a few other people I work with…

I got close…it was fun…everyone was impressed…but I didnt get one to everyone…little did I know that “life would have its ups and downs in the new year—-and that it would take this long to get back in the shop…

The top pen is probably my best pen yet…I really love it…and cant wait to give it to my colleague—the Peer Support teacher—-in addition to history I teach psychology…so i work very close with him…when I did not have enough for everyone on the last day he told me a million times not to worry and make one later (sorry RICH—-3 months later???). I believe it is Kingwood (?) either way it is a nice color and the finish came out very nice…One thing I did on this round of pens is that I put 2 coats of polish on and I really like it…

The middle pen is my first acrylic…and it came out nice…was a bit harder to do…and the smell is annoying but in the end it came out nice…

The bottom pen I made a while ago…I left off the clip but by mistake—-but I really like it with this shape…

matt

Have you ever gotten this call from a colleague a few days before Christmas: “Hey, Matt…this is Dennis…I heard you had a table saw—can I come over and make a few cuts?”

Two days later we had three cool projects and I got to share my shop and my (limited) expertise with a colleague…

The projects were to take used wine barrel tops and turn them into serving boards and a lazy susan.

Dennis (a fellow teacher and a real good person) wanted to make these real fast…but once we got into it of course its a lot more of a project when you get into the details—-although living in Napa I had never worked with used barrels…one of my goals is to make some furniture down the road but have never had the chance…

When he brought them over Dennis thought we could just cut through the wood and sand them down…the problem is the individual boards were connected with metal pins or double pointed nails…so of course we could not just run them through…we needed to separate the boards so we could re-glue them—-in their current state there were too many gaps to be used as a serving tray/cheese board…

In the end and after two days of work i think we had three pretty cool gifts—-I wish that we had more time…they could have been better…One disagreement we had (LOL) was that dennis wanted to keep them a bit rougher—-original form…and i wanted to sand them smoother…you can see this on the curved or board with a handle…—-the logo is the only place we did not sand smooth…the rest we sanded nicely…the other boards we did a light sanding…

Dennis left me with some extra staves and some extra wine barrel tops…which is why i just remembered to post this—-since I finally used one of the barrel tops for some unique wood in the pen trade…

The round project does not show the lazy susan apparatus that we screwed in the back…it was super easy to use and the wine barrel top made a perfect size…

That is definitely what I will do with one of the tops he left me with…

Matt