There’s a woodturning podcast I listen to called “You Made That”. It’s hosted by three turners who are active in social media, the most “known” one being a woman named Rebecca DeGroot. Google this woman, she makes some amazingly creepy things! Anyway, they decided to hold a contest for their listeners. The rules were pretty simple, simple enough that any idiot could follow them. All that was required was to make a box that has two species of wood and something non-wooden – AND – send a picture of the materials you started with, a progress picture (or video) and a picture of the finished project.
Easy, eh?
I decided to start with these three items: Maple, walnut, and a cork from a bottle of moscotto.
My thought was to make a box that looked something like a wine cask out of the maple, turn a knob that looked like a wine glass out of the walnut, and carve the cork to make a bung for the cask. This was one of those projects where I could see what the whole project was going to look like before I even started.
The turning part went really quick (soft maple turns like a dream) but the burning took three separate 3 hour sessions to complete. Not sure when I’ll get feeling back in my index finger from all the heat, but it was actually pretty fun. The walnut goblet knob only took about 15 minutes to turn and sand, so all that was left was the cork.
If you’ve never tried to carve cork, let me give you a little piece of advice: Nature does not want, nor did it ever intend, cork to be carved! It will fight you. It will crumble. It will allow the knife you’re using to wander anywhere it wants. After awhile, I realized that nature was no match for a power sander with a very low grit. What you can’t carve, actually sanded pretty well.
Once all the pieces were done, the final project was assembled. I looked at it for awhile and just smiled, pretty confident that I would do well in the contest. Here’s the finished piece:
When I went to post the pictures on the FB group, cold, cruel, reality set in. In all of my excitement for getting to the finish line, I forgot to take a progress picture. Missing one of the requirements means this one can’t be entered. So while I like the finished project, as a contest entry, it’s an epic fail!
Oh well, live and learn…