More of those Wood Whisperer Clocks

When I saw Marc build that clock a while ago, it seemed like a great goal to make christmas presents for the grandparents this year. So here are the 4 clocks I made. Frames are walnut, center is curly maple, dowels are maple. I’m trying to train myself from the beginning to pay attention to grain, so the grain pattern is continuous if you follow it around the outside of the frame. Due to lack of time and tooling I decided not to do the keyed miter that I’ve seen done; hopefully just the glue will hold these together. The clock movements are 3 1/2” models from Rockler, and I routed the holes with a circular template. The holes don’t go all the way through, so you can fully enjoy the cool grain pattern on the back of the clock as well.

After collecting suggestions here for how to sign my name, I ended up burning my initials with a soldering iron and inlaying a 2008 penny in the bottom of each. Thanks John Gray for the awesome penny idea!

Finish is 4 coats of thinned poly, satin on the frame and semi-gloss on the maple. I tried to pop the grain on the maple with an initial coat of dyed shellac followed by a sanding. I probably could have done better on that part, but it still looks pretty darn cool I think.

Thanks for looking

-- Steve -- University Heights, Ohio