Ghosts of Christmas Present #5, Cherry coffee anyone?

This year I made a coffee scoop for my BIL Rob. We’ve been trading shop-made gifts for a few years now, (if not for Christmas, January 25th, or as was the case this year Valentines Day. You could blame holiday busyness – the fact that everyone also got homemade gifts – But really, we just like to make the Holiday season last as long as possible – as well as like trying to impress each other with new and unexpected projects.

This was my first attempt at a project with dual axes. I’ve played around with multiple axes on one spindle form (all within a few degrees of parallel), this had perpendicular ones. One two shape the handle and bowl, a second to hollow it out, with the help of a homemade jam chuck. Was a fun challenge to get the bowl perfectly spherical to fit in the jam chuck (my first, in maple was a bit off round and popped out), and then keep it seated in the jam chuck without moving.

The bowl was hollowed out very slowly and carefully, while I steeled myself (and held my breath) to try to avoid the (almost invisible) spinning handle. Could have been a real knuckle buster if I wasn’t careful.

These were made of cherry, harvested by my FIL, and finished with walnut oil. The scoop measures a perfect Tablespoon of sawdust (as measured from a plastic scoop I borrowed from the kitchen). It may hold a hair more coffee, but as I make it strong, I’ll go for heaping spoonfulls regardless if it holds .95, 1.0, or 1.025 TBS. ;o)

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/