Lemon Verbena Book Ends

A couple of years ago, Charlene and I wandered by the house where her dad grew up. The current owner was outside, graciously showed us around, and when she heard us talking about woodworking mentioned that she was in the middle of gardening and had just dug up a lemon verbena shrub from the front yard, and would we like the log from it?

Of course we said “yes”, but it’s bounced around for a few years and we haven’t been sure of what we could do with it, and eventually Charlene said “my Dad’s not getting any younger, we need to figure out something”, and while we were turning the piece over and over in our hands, trying to come up with something that’d preserve the awesomeness of this relatively small piece of wood, and be useful, Charlene said “book ends!”

So we got some thin steel, cut some strips out of it, screwed those strips on to the bottom, and after a whole bunch of sanding and polishing, ended up with some rather pretty book ends.

And this weekend she’s taking this little piece of her father’s childhood, back before WWII, down to give him.

Should be awesome.

Anyway, seemed like a relatively simple and easy thing to do if you’ve got a piece of gorgeous wood that you can’t figure out what to do with.

Similar content (with higher res pictures) at my personal web site

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke