Beyond just doing stained glass, my wife has also started
quilting. She’s very talented and adept at learning new skills and I figured
that there were probably some items that I could make to go along with her quilting.
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| My Wife's first handmade quilt donated for a WV Foster Child. |
I’ve owned a lathe for a number of years. I bought one of the Harbor Freight specials,
but for what I needed, it was fine. I
wanted to own one and carry on what I had learned many years ago in high
school…yes, there was a time in our history that schools taught wood shop. Too bad that class has mostly become
extinct. Anyway…I purchased a lathe and
my first real project was making legs for a small desk I made my wife. After that project, it mostly sat dormant for
years and years until we moved to where we live now and I got back into
turning.
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| A hand-turned bowl made from Cherry. |
I started back into it by turning small bowls using some
blanks I bought on sale at Woodcraft. I
found bowl turning not only enjoyable, but relatively easy with the right
“gadgets” to help along the way. In
addition to bowls, I decided to try my hand at making pens and other items that
go beyond just bowls. It turns out there
is a plethora of kits you can buy to make not only pens, but salt and pepper
shakers and grinders, pizza cutter handles, and yes…the aforementioned quilting
items known as seam rippers.
Once my wife began quilting and making friends with the
local quilting guild, we were told that some ladies had purchased some handmade
seam rippers that they really liked and that if I do woodworking, I should make
some to sell to the other ladies. With
my trusty credit card and link to a particular pen and project-making website,
I purchased a few kits.
I made two that have a pen-type clip you could clip in your
pocket or sewing bag. These feature a
reversible blade that you pull out and flip around when you need it, the flip
it back to keep it from poking you.
These first two were single-ended (I have a couple of kits for a
double-ended one)
and were made to see what it takes to produce these items. The kit is well made and fairly easy to
assemble using my pen kit press. There’s
not much wood that needs turned and the time it takes is relative to how
creative I am at the time.
I had found later that there were kits that are necklaces
with a magnet that holds the seam ripper to the necklace. Quite clever! Once one of my wife’s fellow quilters saw
that style, she said that was the one that would be a hit. So, exercising my credit card prowess, I
ordered a kit of six and made them all in a few hours (to my wife’s surprise
and delight). I tried to create a
different style for each one (which being handmade, they’re unique in some way
already) with three different types of
wood.
I had some pen blanks that I had purchased a couple years ago and they
worked out great. I made two of each
species: 2 Purpleheart, 2 Paduk, and 2 Zebrawood.
I had never worked with any of these species before this
project. They’re easy to turn and really
pop when you apply a finish. These were
all finished with a friction polish.
Essentially, the polish is made of a fast evaporating medium with a dissolved
shellac. Applied to a paper towel, the
heat from the spinning part melts the shellac, creates a layer of finish, and
the rest evaporates away to leave the shellac behind. I haven’t been able to get it to a high
luster however, I feel that for grip, it would probably be better than a smooth
or slick finish. Based on feedback from
the quilting group, I may adjust the finish and use what’s called a CA
(cyanoacrylate or super glue) finish. I
haven’t had great luck with CA finishes but I think the glue I was using was
the culprit.
Overall, we were pleased with the results and the assembly
was less tedious than the clip-type ripper.
We feel that the necklace would be more popular anyway because it may be
less prone to be misplaced or lost. They
were easy for me to make and allowed me to try different designs and styles
which, in a way, is a little difficult with small wood blanks and a shortage of
creativity on my part. There’s only so
much I can do with curves and grooves…but hey…they’re handmade and unique
either way right?
I have placed some of the seam rippers for sale with free shipping at our Etsy Store,
Shards and Sawdust
Stay tuned for another sawdust post in the near future where
I show some cutting boards that I’ve made.
