Olympic Torch and New Base

 I had this piece of very red box elder sitting on the bench just asking to be something. I thought it should be a flame of some kind. I also had this Hawthorne log sitting on the bench that had dried and split down the middle .
 While looking at different Olympic torches, I found a picture( last photo) of this one with a red and yellow flame that I thought would be my model. I cut the Hawthorne log down the center , jointed both halves and glued it back together. Then I scaled all the dimensions from the torch to fit the log.
 The Torch is made from four different kinds of wood. The body is Hawthorne- the rings are Juniper- the flame is Box Elder and Osage Orange - the top, that the flame is glued into,is box elder also.
 It is finished with 6 coats of clear matte spray. My one regret it that I did not make the slot in the top for the flame parallel with the grain!
The torch is 10 1/2" tall and 3 1/4" in diameter
 
 The last shot shows my little fixture I used to put in the flutes in the mill. It has 12 location and it worked perfectly.
 
 I have now made a base for it. I was going to send it to Usain Bolt in Jamaica with an inscription that said the "fastest man in the world", but it was not the 2012 style of Olympic torch so it would not be fitting. The following shots are of the new base made from some of that  real red female box elder. The red will eventually fade  as you can see happened to the torch after 12 years

 The base is hollowed out because I was going to carve it with 3 legs but I thought with that height, it was better to leave it fully round!

 .................Jim