Carved Santa & Table Legs

I'm waiting for the glue to dry, so here are two different projects that I have been working on. The first is a Santa I took directly from a magazine. While I'm not real keen on the overall design, there are parts of it that I like. It's not painted yet, and the lower section you'll see a area that is woodburned. In that section each square is an alternating color. Take a look, and you may see it painted someday, too.


An additional project I am working on is a carving bench. The height when I am done should be about 40", and I am going for a top that I can tilt. The first shot shows the boards that I am using for the legs and stretchers. It is all Myrtle wood, although one of the back legs will be a little punky along one edge. Next shot shows the legs laying on the floor prior to assembly, then again on the table shot dry fitted. The mortise and tenon joints don't fit all that well, but it is still early in my training.

I actually have both assemblies all glued together now. Once it dries I'll add the stretchers. The front and back legs are different sizes, but the total width are the same for each set. Everything is adjusted depending upon the size of the boards available. Makes building this more entertaining as you need to cut and adjust as you go. I cut the stretchers from the 4 ¾" board. They are 7/8" thick, but they would have made a nice book-matched pair.


Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

A small bowl

The bowl I have here was made during a break from family shortly after my Step-Mother had her first stroke. That would have made it the second week of January. I needed a break. I grabbed a piece of scrap and with nothing in mind made the bowl. I used BLO for the finish. I have no idea what I'll use the bowl for, other that say it was practice. It's about 4 inches across and just over 2 inches tall. While it did turn out light as I was able to keep the sidewalls thin, the shape is not all that graceful. Oh well, I get to try again later.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Bangles and Ornaments

Just before Christmas I tried turning a bangle. It was my first try and it came out looking pretty good. The wood is Myrtle and the wrist is my daughters. The inside size was actually close to a good size, while it was a ¼ large for her, it fit 80% of the ladies that tried it. Way to small for me. Unfortunately, there was a crack in the block I turned that I did not notice, which became a split across the bangle. I couldn't get the super glue to hold, so while trying to get the glue in the bangle became two half pieces. I'll try again as it was fun and fairly simple.


Next up is an inside-out ornament I turned using Myrtle again. This is larger than I really like, but I was able to hang a small decoration on the inside which I think is what made it so popular. Each of the 4 pieces was 1 inch square instead of the typical ;frac34; inch.




Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.