International Keychains

This project originated from two sources. A garage sale find and internet orders.

The first and second pics are the result. Finished keychains, destined for a new friend of mine in Mumbai, India and Sarasota, FL.

The next two are of a piece of 50-60s vintage, solid maple bedstand. It was probably on its way to the dump, as it was late Sunday afternoon when I found it and the hosts of the sale looked kind of frazzled. After looking at it, I was happy to pay the $5.00 and haul it to my truck. The hosts looked confused at my satisfied look. They probably thought they had just let a valuable antique slip through their hands.

The oak was from a similar piece I found a couple weeks ago.

You see, that morning I had received an order for the 10 maple keychains you see in pic 1 and I was low on maple stock. I order my stuff online and was going to have to wait a few days in order to fill the keychain order. The second order in oak, I had on hand.

After breaking it down, the pieces yielded quite a bit of useful stock for a craftsman of small woodstuffs. Cutting boards, box material and keychain fodder. There was even some maple with flame figure. The oak was from an old desk (circa 1910) and finished beautifully. These fobs are a great way to show off interesting pieces of wood that are too small for larger projects.

The whole project was an investment of eight hours of dismantling, milling, carving, sanding and finishing. Don’t forget the $5.00 I paid for each piece, gas money, hunt time and my gambling that I don’t hit a submerged screw or nail and mess up a tool.

So, it was not free material. It likely cost me more than if I had just ordered new wood from my dealer. But the hunt and find was fun and the piece is now still alive and distributed across the globe.

I’ll bet it’s sister piece didn’t fair so well.

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