couple of xmas gifts.

[Chris Studley]

Thanks all for the kind comments and the warm welcome to SMC.Here are a couple of things that I made for Xmas gifts. My stepfather is a motorcycle guy so... I made made him a pen holder and tried to emulate his bikes gas tank. I turned it on one axis and then on the other. The apple lidded box for my sons teacher. Next is a little lidded box for my niece.

[Ken Hill]

Looks like a Sportster tank! Good job, they should be a big hit!!

[David E Keller]

Love that apple, Chris... Should be good for a few bonus points!

[Mike Willeson]

Very nice Chris. Really like the apple!

[David Reed]

Unique pieces and a great imagination. I also like the apple and its implications.
Great work

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nice work on all the gifts Chris - especially the Apple! That is impressive work!

[Steve Vaughan]

Love that gas tank! What a great idea! Did you think of woodburning Harley-Davidson (or any other make) on the sides of that thing? Nice creativity all the way round!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Like'em all but the apple really is nice.

[Chris Studley]

Thanks all...

I am most happy about the way the apple came out. Makes it worth the red dust mess and stained finger tips.

[Jim Burr]

Really cool Chris!! How about some wood types and dimensions? You do some nice finishing work by the way!

[Chris Studley]

@Jim:

The apple is Padauk w/ ebony stem. It's about 4" Tall w/ stem, slightly less wide than tall, Wall thickness is around 1/4", little thicker at bottom for weight/balance.

The Motorcycle tank is Padauk and BE maple (with very few BE's to speak of as it was from some scrapped end pieces the lumber yard was happy to send me off with for $0). It is also about 4" tall and 7-8" long. The second axis mounting for the cavity was done with an expanding collet chuck ($9 at Woodcraft! limited in use but worth the $) It is comparatively heavy to most of my work but has a pleasing heft to it and will be quite stable on a desk with pens in it. If I were to do it again I might do a few things differently. I would have had the Padauk center piece be a little thicker in relation to the Maple and would have used a dark veneer between them for a "border" look around the Maple. Overall I'm pleased.

The Little Lidded box is Alder and Peruvian Walnut. I must say the Alder was much softer than I expected and required more sanding than I care to admit. The lumber yard near me got a fairly huge batch of the Peruvian Walnut, all 3/4 S3S though. It is much more "chocolaty" than domestic and really no variation in color or sapwood. All of the wood for this one was also free because of splits and cracks that I either milled around or turned off.

The finish on all of them is simple Minwax furniture paste wax.

I will try to include this info in the future...

Thanks again for the complements.