Toothpick Holder

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I saw this idea from Wood Magazine somewhere a while back and saved a picture to give one a shot.  Last week I got around to it. 

I used spalted Tamarind for the body.  I had to soak it with CA glue as I turned it to make the wood hard enough to get a finish I was happy with. 


But after several soakings and some scraping and sanding, I was satisfied.


The body is about 2" at the top and about 1-3/8" at the bottom.  I finished the lid and body with some homemade friction polish while they were still on the lathe.

I have a habit of keeping small pieces of woods I really like just for stuff like this.  I used a tiny piece of Desert Ironwood left over from a pen blank to turn the finial.  The "bucket" that holds the toothpicks is from an offcut of Cocobolo from a hand plane knob I turned.  And the stem connecting the lid and bucket is a small piece of Olivewood that was too small to even put on the lathe so I shaped it with a carving knife and piece of sandpaper.  

The Cocobolo has some of my friction polish on it.  No finish on the Olive.  And the Ironwood has friction polish and a single coat of wipe-on poly since it's the piece that will be handled all the time.

Thanks for looking.  Comments and questions welcomed as always!

13 Comments

Very cool,  

Figuring out how to do something you have never done is what makes a good challenge.

came out real nice kenny !

working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

Love this, excellent idea and a nice job with it.

Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. - OldTools Archive -

Looks really good. Thought it was going to be bigger when you posted the progress pictures.
This is a perfect gift project to use all those smaller bit of cool woods. Very nice!
Very nice Ken, I really like the wood. Your photography is exceptional also.
Nice chunck of wood for that.  The finial is nice too.  

--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

That is a great idea


Petey

GR8 JOB 😍😎👍

*TONY ** Reinholds* ALWAYS REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN

That looks really nice Kenny. I like that fact that it has a lid with the final. Well done.

Main Street to the Mountains

Nice work, Kenny! I suspect we’ll see a few projects replicating that idea around here before too long.

May you have the day you deserve!

Yep, there will be. I did a few for Christmas but did not include a top.

Main Street to the Mountains

Pretty cool, Ken...nice wood used on it!!

Cheers, Jim ........................ Variety is the spice of life...............Learn something new every day