A while back (maybe back in the summer), I ordered a few
Niles Bottle Opener Kits from Penn State. This morning, after doing a glue-up on another project, and not being willing to call it a day in the shop yet, I dug one of them out and grabbed a chunk of mimosa that Pottz had sent me, and got to work.
This is the result. For my first try with this kit, I think it came out ok. I know of a few things I’ll do better next time around, but it’s a spindle-oriented turning, and I’m getting pretty good with my skew, so any deficiencies are more a matter of not spending the time to figure out a good design than any problems in implementation.
Anyway, it was a fun project. Turned it, sanded from 60 up to 400 grit, used
Ack’s Sanding Paste to partially finish, epoxied the opener into the wood with some five-minute epoxy, cut off the stub-tenon, sanded the end of the handle smooth by hand, and then buffed it all with the
Beall Wood Buffing System to make it all pretty. About 75 minutes elapsed for a fun little project.