Made these pens for a former pastor and his wife. They were honored this past Sunday for 45 years of service. They are Seirra kits with a religous theme. I wanted to make a nice pen set, but didn’t think acrylic would be appropriate. A local pen turner helped me out with a supply of Bethlehem Olive wood and instructions for a C/A finish. Never had done this before, but will do it again. I did not realize you can make wood look like acrylic! My thanks to Hans for his help. Comments and critiques welcomed.

Alright, these are my version of a bullet pen. I had a camo blank and thought it would go well with the theme of these pens. Short one is a 308, the other is a 30.06. Added the specialized clips, rifle and a buck head. (Sorry about the quality of the pictures.) Thanks for lookin’. Comments and critiques welcomed.

Normally I wouldn’t post a pen, but I thought this one might be a little different. I looked back at some past postings for pens and did not see a camouflaged pen. ( I could be wrong.) I made this one for my boss who is moving on. He is prior military, as am I, and I thought this would be a fitting gift for him. The kit is a cigar style called “chrome black”. It goes very well with the camo pen blank. I will be making more of these.

Flag case for an officer retirement. Nothing special, except for the curly maple inlay. First time I tried it and I think it worked pretty well. Will use it more often now that I know how to do it.

I was ask to make a flag case for a friend. He sent me a picture and ask could I build it? No problem I said. After studying his picture and some time in sketch up, this what I came up with. (I had posted the initial drawing here
http://lumberjocks.com/topics/7800 ) Now, before I go any further, my thanks go out to DaveR. As some you may know he is the resident sketch up guru! I would not have been able to do the drawing and have this come out like it did with out his help. Thanks Dave.

Made from cherry, love this wood, and stained with my mixture of warm cherry stain, georgian gel and a hint of java gel, all General Finishes. A coat of shellac and two coats satin poly sanded to 400 between coats.The outer boxes are pitched at 15 degrees to the front. This posed an interesting dilemma. How to mount the glass. What I came up with was to cut a dado on the upper rails and stiles. The inner stile have two dados. The inboards are 90 degrees and the outboards are 15 degrees. I have some small pieces of glass I used as templates as to make sure everything line up. Took about three hours of fitting to make it right. Well worth the time. All tolled, I have about 20 hours in this. Had a lot of fun designing and making this case. Hope the customer is happy. All comments are welcomed and appreciated.

A friend of mine saw this in the latest issue of Wood magazine and ask me to make it for him. The wood is padauk and curly maple. Finished with two coats of gloss poly. Delivering it today. We’ll see if he likes it!

Okay, here are a couple pics with the wine bottle holder in action. I thought this was going to be a unique piece, but as I have found out this isn’t as unusual as I thought it would be. But it’s still pretty cool! Thanks to all who “participated” in the guessing game. Really made my day.

Okay, fellow Lumberjocks. Let’s have some fun. Can anyone figure out what this is. This is the first of many I hope to make. Just a little info: It is made from purpleheart with a coat of antique oil finish. It is a piece by itself. It’s function is decorative only. Any ideas??? I work shiifts and am getting ready to do three 12 hour days in a row, so I won’t get to check my page a whole lot. I’ll try to give the answer by Monday ,3 Nov. There are no prizes to be awarded, only the satisfaction of a correct guess.

A friend of mine opened his own business. I offered to make him a “business warming gift”, ( if there is such a thing). He said he could use a way to display all his literature. After a few tries with SketchUp, I came up with this design. It’s about 44” X 7” X 7 1/2”. He wanted a dark wood to match the rest of the furniture in his office. I stumbles across a piece of Sapele at my local wood store. I think it is quarter sawn because of the ribbon effect running through the grain. At least that’s what I read online. This was my first attempt at finger joints and they turned out pretty good. The finish is two coats of antique oil and hand rubbed. This also the first piece I have designed an my own.

Lessons learned:
Sapele is very light and will tear out through a planer if you even think about it.
It is also very porous. The bottom is 1/4 thick and when I applied the oil, it bled through to the inside.
Where a mask when sanding. The desert doesn’t have this much dust!!!

This was my second attempt at an end grain cutting board. I used four types of wood. Maple, cherry, purpleheart and padauk. I found out that purpleheart and padauk are subject to chip out through a planer. I made two different blanks to achieve this look. The finish is about 8 to 10 coats of salad bowl finish wiped on. I have seen other cutting boards members have posted and they look great! This one doesn’t come close to the others, but the customer was happy.