Madrone French Rolling Pin

Hard to shoot a pic of this thing- It’s my first real lathe project. Got a Harbor Freight lathe for my birthday and have been having a bit of fun. I glued together two pieces of 5/4 madrone to get the size I needed. I didn’t know the knot was there till I got it round. Also- if you look closely you can see some tiger ripples in it- that was a surprise as I did not know madrone did that! This rolling pin is 20” long, 2” thick in the center and about 1” on the very end. The taper starts at about 6” from the ends on both side. I used calipers and though it’s hard to see from the picture- the tapers on each end do match. It’s so long that when I try to take the pic I have to turn it at an angle to get it all in – so it looks like one end is smaller than the other, but it isn’t.
Boy- learning to use the skew is HARD! I filled the knot with epoxy when it was almost done, then filled it again after epoxy had cured and shrunk. Though you can see it- you cannot feel it. Finished by sanding thru all the grits to 600 and then wet sanding with mineral oil to 800. A Christmas gift for my step daughter, who just got married last year.

-- The only gift is a portion of thyself. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)