My Old Man's Gift. - Woodworking Talk

**Leo G** · 12-24-2006, 09:55 PM

Well, this year my Dad turned 70. And whether he thinks so or not I always see an old man with a stylish cane/walking stick. So as my Christmas gift to him, I made what I consider a nice cane

.

It is made from Sapelle' with Soft Maple stripes. The diamond is a solid piece of Curly Maple through the cane to act as a pin to keep the joint together if the glue fails (not). Made a sandwich of 15/16" Sapelle' with an 1/8" Maple in between. Cut that in half and glued another 1/8" piece of Maple in between again, this formed a cross. Now I had a 2" x 2" blank. Then I cut 4-45º angles on the corners to make it square with an 'X' instead of a '+'. This made the blank 1 1/2" square. Then I cut off 3/16" off two parelell sides to get it to 1 1/8" x 1 1/2". Did the mill work for attaching the handle next, cutting a slot in the cane and a tenon on the handle. Then I tapered the cane on the edge sander and router the edges over with a 1/2" radius bit (except for the top 1 3/4" were left rectangular). Back to the edge sander to make the bottom as round as I could. Glued it up (let it dry), Used my square chisel mortiser at a 45º angle for the diamond, pounded the Curly Maple pin into the joint, sanded it flush and finished with the routing and sanding. Put on 3 coats of ML Campbell's gloss MagnaMax (pre-cat laq). Total time was about 3 hours not including glue dry time.

Came from the heart so he'll have to at least keep it around. We'll see if he uses it

. Here are a few photos.

Big Dave · 12-25-2006, 12:18 AM

Very nice. I like the design and contours.

P.S. you might think of getting some sort of a rubber pad or cup to put on the bottom to keep it from slipping.

**TexasTimbers** · 12-25-2006, 01:01 AM

That's nice - AND nice work too, Leo.

cranbrook2 · 12-25-2006, 08:17 AM

Beautiful work Leo
That's a very slick design