Banksia pod

[steven carter]

Bought a banksia pod at Rockler. After getting it round and getting through a coating of red velvet, most of it was light tan color and very fibrous, not the hard dark color. All I could get out of it was a toothpick holder. This may be the worlds most expensive toothpick holder. Anyone else have this problem, maybe it is theForrest Gump box of chocolates.

[Thom Sturgill]

I've only done a couple, but no such problem although the center can be small sometimes. There are about 170 species of Banksia, so that might easily account for differences.

[Tim Rinehart]

Steven, they can be a challenge and getting one that will yield much can be a bit of a crap shoot. I've got lucky in the past buying sight unseen from Rockler, but find the best ones for larger projects are from AustralianBurls, the Whoppers, as they are referred. Bad dog burls also carries them, but I have no experience with theirs. Here's what you can do with a whopper... http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?192149-Banksia-Peppermill
keep in mind, the largest diam of any section of the pod is influenced by any depressions along the length. Ideal pods have good symmetry of shape along the length.
im playing around with a banksia peppermill today, doing a crush grind version, look for it to be posted in coming days.

[Allan Ferguson]

But! You have a unique tooth pick holder. Allan

[Bruce Pratt]

1. Have obtained Banksia seed pods from Bad Dogs and very pleased with them (no affiliation)
2. Had good luck in making pepper grinders (the kind where the mechanism screws on to the top).
3. Google images for turned banksia seed pod for other ideas.

[Pat Scott]

Allan took the words out of my mouth: what a cool looking toothpick holder you ended up with!

[Mike Tilley]

Steve looks good to me is that the natural colors or did you use dye on it?
Mike

[Stan Smith]

I think that you got it to come out pretty good. You were limited by the size but made good use of what you had to work with. I also bought one from Rockler but haven't done anything with it yet. I'm going to try and make a little vase and put one of those glass test tubes in it. That way my wife can put some small fresh flowers in it or buy some fake ones from Michaels. If it comes out okay, I'll buy some more from the sources mentioned above. Thanks for sharing, Steve.

[Ryan Baker]

It looks pretty good to me too! I know what you mean about looking for something to keep in the center. I have started with big pods and had to keep turning through inclusions or depressions until there was little center left -- certainly not enough for the original plan. Tagua nuts are the same way.

[steven carter]

Mike, I put my home brew oil finish on it. 1/3 blo, 1/3 gloss poly, 1/3 mineral spirit

[Jim Seyfried]

Really cool and unique toothpick holder Steven! Thanks for sharing your home brew too!