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Several weeks ago, I got to take a weekend road trip to my brother's place in Tennessee, while the leaves down south were still in glorious fall color. My newlywed niece’s birthday celebration was that same weekend. As I had a bit of extra time available, I decided to hand-make a gift for her.

In keeping with my long-running (and lately one-sided) college-football bragging rights competition with my brother, I decided that the gift should incorporate a nice piece of buckeye burl wood. (For the uninitiated, Ohio is the “Buckeye State”, and Ohio State University sports teams are called the “Buckeyes”). I already had four buckeye burl turning blanks squirrelled away, scored at bargain prices on eBay one evening a year or two back.

My newlywed niece loves ice cream. So I decided to make her a nice ice cream scoop, using a Hawk Point ice cream scoop kit from Woodcraft. The kit is a definite five stars ... I really don't see how it could be improved upon. The scoop has a striking sculpted shape. Both the scoop and the ferrule are made of heavy stainless steel, nicely machined, and with a lovely brushed finish. All for the princely price of $14. Or even a bit less, if you buy four at a time. I forgot to take a photo of the hardware, so here’s a stock photo from the Woodcraft site.
And here’s the burl blank that I started with.
I had never worked with buckeye burl before, and when selecting a blank, I was struck at how light they all were. The low density, combined with small voids and random grain orientation, made me worry that they might not be strong enough for an ice-cream scoop handle. So I decided to bore the blank out almost full length, from the scoop end, and epoxy in a 3/4" oak dowel for reinforcement.

This would be only my fourth turning project, and my novice turning skills were pretty rusty even at that. Plus, this was my first chance to play with my new Nova live center (from last Christmas) and my new Nova G3 chuck (from the last Shopsmith special). So I decided that I should turn a practice handle first, before attempting to turn the buckeye burl.

For practice blanks, my available options were ash and cherry, both sawn a couple years ago from trees that had died in my woods. As there was only a couple of days to go before the trip, I decided to use the cherry. I figured that would improve the odds of having at least one pretty handle, in case the buckeye burl blew up on me.

As for the handle profile, a reviewer on the Woodcraft site had posted photos of his scoops, and I thought one of his handles was quite nice. So I modified his design just a bit, and went for an organic vase-like shape. Then I fine-tuned the profile to make it feel comfortable in my hand. Despite a couple of catches with the gouge while turning, the practice handle turned out pretty good. The pic below shows it after three or four coats of wipe-on poly.

After re-learning how to avoid catches, turning the buckeye blank went surprisingly well. I cut it octagonal on the band saw, and then rough-turned it between the SS drive center and the Nova live center. The photos below show the next steps.

Not shown, to turn the back end of the handle, I removed the 50mm chuck jaws, reversed the workpiece, and chucked directly on the tenon.

The new Nova G3 chuck was terrific for the actual turning. But for finishing, it would have been somewhat in the way. So I simply used a brad-point bit in the scoop-shaft bore as a "jamb chuck" for final sanding and finishing, with the Nova live center still doing the tailstock duty.
Sanding was a quick & easy progression of 100, 150, 220, & 320 grit sandpaper. One thing that I really like about turning is that the headstock does all the sanding work -- all you have to do is hold the sandpaper.

For the handle finish, I used Minwax Wipe-On Poly. This scoop is intended for real use, so I wanted something that would stand up to many uses and washings. Plus, my new "nephew-in-law" is already making some impressive DIY starter-home improvements and furniture. So with the Minwax product available most everywhere, he can easily touch up with the original finish, should the need arise.

Which brings us smack up to where my plans went awry. I had figured on two days for finishing the scoop handle, prior to hitting the road. The buckeye burl had different plans. Let me tell you, when it comes to finishing, that stuff is more sponge-like than wood-like. It sucked up coat after coat of wipe-on poly without building a film. After half a dozen coats, just a few small areas were starting to build.

But now I was out of time. I Googled "buckeye burl finishing", and learned that it is notorious for being sponge-like. Unless you buy "stabilized" (i.e. resin-impregnated) blanks, that is, which I clearly had not. So I decided to wrap up both the burl handle and the cherry practice handle, and let the niece pick her favorite. The buckeye burl was destined to be prettier, but the cherry was slimmer, as a result of those gouge catches and ensuing repairs. Which just might be the ticket for a smaller female hand.

As it turned out, my niece chose the buckeye burl, but my sister-in-law really liked the way the cherry handle fit her hand. Cool, instant Christmas present ... additional scoop kits are only $14!

So the handles accompanied me on the return trip to Ohio for final finishing. After another half-dozen coats of wipe-on poly, I was getting a beautiful finish on the buckeye burl. A couple of times, I knocked down the high spots with 400-grit sandpaper between coats. All this wasn't nearly as much labor as it sounds like, since the headstock does the work. The human effort is mostly summoning up the patience to let it dry between coats.

And here are the final results.
Thanks for looking, guys, I hope I gave someone a Christmas-present idea.

Please stay tuned for my next project -- the Super-Quick & Easy Buckeye Burl-Strip Canoe!

NICE, and she will think of you with each scoop!!!!

OMG, that's beautiful! Novice turner? I think not!

That's gorgeous work!

Chris

Your patience with the finishing really paid off, it's just beautiful. And thanks for the kit review, I think I'll order one, or four.

Any thoughts about using a threaded insert so that the handle can be removed for washing?

Mike

That is magnificent Dennis!

Very Well Done!

I've made and seen a lot of ice cream scoops Dennis but this is by far the best looking scoop I have ever seen PERIOD.

Moose

Thanks guys! That really was a fun little project. I spent most of a day getting familiar with the new toys, working out the process, and turning the practice handle. But with that under my belt, making the burl handle the next day took only three or four hours, including all the reinforcing-dowel work. With practice, I'm guessing that might get down to an hour or so.

Mike, I did consider using a threaded insert for the scoop. Matter of fact, I installed one on a pizza-cutter kit that I did for Christmas a year or two ago -- IIRC it was included with the kit. But pizza cutters are a real pain to wash by hand, so being able to put the hardware in the dishwasher is pretty important. Not so with ice cream scoops ... you can probably hand-wash one faster than you could disassemble and reassemble it. And that is a pretty long threaded shaft on that scoop kit. So I decided it made more sense to epoxy it together permanently, completely sealing the wood in the process.