Table centerpiece candle holder

I saw this design in woodsmith magazine some time back and had to make it. The body is made from a length of 1.75” thick hard maple and the legs are from a turning block of Quina.

The maple was milled with a wrap around dado to accept the feet and two bottom spanners to hold the half’s together. The candle holders were made by drilling the base with a with 2” diameter Forstner Bit, I varied the height of each candle location to give it some additional visual interest with a gentle rise up and back down.

One the holes were cut, the part received a 10 degree bevel on all sides to soften the form. Once that was is done it was split down the middle. The base spanners are added to the bottom dado’s hold the two half’s together.

The legs are Quina, they are cut with a dado to interlock with the dado in the base. They also receive a 10 degree bevel on the top.

I finished the legs on my buffing wheel before assembly, this gave them a nice high luster plus gave me lots of time to polish all the end grain which is on prominent display. I also used the buffing wheel on the end grain of the maple to polish it. After assembly the part received 4 coats of teak oil (the maple did) and then 3 coats of tung oil.

-- Steve, http://www.robsonranchwoodworkers.org