The new Rotary year has started and our new President commented that she didn’t have a gavel for board meetings. It wasn’t a request or anything, just an absent minded observation she made. Well, I’ve never made a gavel…and didn’t even know the thing you hit with it is called a Sound Block, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make one, right?
I happened to be near Woodcraft so I swung in and found a nice block of rosewood for the gavel. My intention is to make a new, personalized gavel each year for the incoming president. The Sound Block will remain with the Board and be passed from Board to Board for use.
Turning the rosewood was pleasant, although my lack of recent experience shown through. I was smart enough to do a practice run on my design with some fir to get myself tuned up. The turning was mostly uneventful although I did lose a chunk of the handle where it joins the mallet head due to grain at the point and a small catch, but I sanded down the other side to make them parallel and it looks like it was designed that way. It’s all about how you recover, right? I drilled out the handle and the head to accept a 1/2” dowel to attach the two pieces. Honestly, a press fit would have worked, but I glued them too… Sanded to 400 the rosewood takes an amazing shine without any finish. I was also impressed with the grain color striations within this piece of rosewood. I don’t have a lot of experience with this wood, but it almost looked like zebra wood when I first turned it down. Very light and very dark stripes. Although the dark stripes were definitely more brown than the Zebra I’ve got. Some laser work to personalize it and then just BLO as a finish.
The Sound Block is intended to not match the gavel, since it’s not part of a set. Its base is maple, with a local walnut top. The walnut is from an orchard a few miles away that’s very old, as is the Rotary Club…celebrating its 100th year in town this upcoming year. I laser engraved the top, and flocked the bottom. First time flocking, and it was a breeze…of course it was a small, flat surface. I’ve got another, more complicated project coming up that i want to flock, so this was a practice round.
Anyway, it came out nice for a simple project. It’ll go into service next week at the next Board meeting as a surprise.