Inspired by
Ed Reible's bottle stopper tutorial back around Christmas time, I ordered a mandrel and some stoppers from
Ruth Niles right away. Some time later, I spotted some small Ebony blanks on sale at my local Woodcraft, and decided that they could look mighty fine atop those stoppers. I squirreled all the goodies away for a while, and then pulled them back out a couple of weeks ago when I wanted to hand-make a special gift. A single blank was just large enough to make two stoppers.
- Raw materials.JPG (735.68 KiB) Viewed 18355 times
This was my first time working with ebony. It's very interesting stuff -- 30% denser than white oak, and over twice as hard, according to wood-database.com. The label on the blank says that it's Gaboon ebony, which is supposed to be very slightly buoyant. But when I put the blank in a bucket of water, it sank like the rock. So I'm wondering if it might actually be African Blackwood, which is denser and harder yet. I had to sharpen the lathe tools several times, even working on such a small workpieces. Tapping them for the stopper felt just about the same as tapping aluminum. The mandrel didn't stand a chance, so I tapped them with a regular metal tap, and got perfect threads.
The ebony makes the strangest sawdust that I've ever seen. It looks almost like ground coffee. Fortunately, it's not nearly as messy as it looks -- I had no problem with it staining stuff.
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The auxiliary spindle came in mighty handy during the finishing process. I found a 3/8-16 bolt that I could chuck up in a drill chuck, mounted the chuck to the aux spindle, and threaded on the second stopper handle. Then I could apply finish to both stoppers, without swapping them about. The finish was gloss wipe-on poly, which I applied with a piece of old T-shirt while the stoppers were spinning at low speed.
- The aux spindle is mighty handy.JPG (700.71 KiB) Viewed 18355 times
The ebony finished well, and turned almost jet-black as soon as I wet it. I kept applying the wipe-on poly until the pores were filled -- something like three coats a day for most of a week. Occasional sanding with wet-or-dry paper, using mineral spirits for lubricant, knocked down the inevitable imperfections. I started at 320 grit on an early coat, and worked up to 1500 for the final sanding. Then two final coats of poly put the gloss back on.
The stoppers were gifts for my brother and sister-in-law, and match their counter tops rather nicely!
- Beauty shot.JPG (677.76 KiB) Viewed 18355 times
- Closeup.JPG (352.5 KiB) Viewed 18341 times
By the way, I swapped a couple of emails with Ruth Niles after I bought the stoppers. She mentioned that her mandrel also works with ice cream scoop handles, shaving brushes, light pulls, beer tap handles, many cheese spreaders/pizza cutters, etc. -- basically any of the products on the market with a 3/8" threaded stem. It's very well made, and a nice accessory to have for your Shopsmith.
Mark 7 Power Pro, Mark V 510, Mark VII (early 1960s) Headstock wall mount drill press on Mark 5 way tubes, Mark 5 Shorty with reversible motor, Overhead Pin Router, Power station with band saw, Jointers, Belt Sanders, Strip Sander, Scroll saw, Jigsaw, Shopsmith Lathe Duplicator, Craftsman 2.5 hp 13" Planer/molder, Craftsman 5 hp 12-inch planer molder, myriad Shopsmith accessories, Harbor Freight sawmill with extensions to cut 22' logs.
