Homemade gifts

So, what to do for a wedding where the happy couple already have all they need, and ask for no gifts, but say we can make them something instead if we like.  Sounds like a challenge.  Here's what I've made:


The design is from British woodworking magazine, based on an original seen at a French winemakers.  I've made mine from offcuts to hand - Iroko left over from making my front door, and a bit of beech for the sandwich filling.  Pretty straightforward to make - the three crescents are marked out with a template, sawn out, and glued together.  The final shaping I did with a pair of spokeshaves.  Hole for the neck drilled with a 32mm holesaw - the tricky bit, because it would stand out like a sore thumb if it weren't exactly in the middle or drilled wonky. Finished with Osmo Polyx oil.

I suppose it should really have a bottle of homemade mead in it, so they could have a traditional "honeymoon"

wikipedia wrote:
In many parts of Europe it was traditional to supply a newly married couple with enough mead for a month, ensuring happiness and fertility. From this practice we get honeymoon or, as the French say, lune de miel

That is beautiful, C-H !

A very lovely gift. How long did it take to make, out of interest?

Thanks CW. Time is always difficult to estimate, because I tend to do in short bits fitted in when I can grab a moment. I guess I spent about 1 1/2 hours marking out, sawing and glueing up. The spokeshaving was surprisingly quick (if you exclude time spent fettling old spokeshaves off ebay !), then a few 10 minute sessions of oiling. Maybe about 3 hours ?
It would be a lot quicker to glue the boards together then saw the crescent shape through the lot on a band saw - less fiddly glueing and less spokeshave work - But I don't have one ..

It's really quite gorgeous. I do love it. Are there any dowel pegs, or strictly glue up? I kind of understand it to be glue up based on the description, plus it won't be carrying any heavy loads, lol. I love the contrast of the two woods. I'm sure it will find a favorite place for them. Great build!

That is a very nice pressy to have, with the added bonus of being very tactile which I just love. Well done.

No dowels used mr_sfstk8d. The glue claims to be stronger than the wood anyway, so the three layers are spread thinly on both surfaces with PVA and then the whole lot clamped up with a lot of G-clamps; it looks rather silly but ensures that the glue line is as thin as possible.

The weakest points are the ends of the crescent - the grain of the 3 layers run parallel; though it is tempting to cross them like plywood, the layers are too thick for that and the different movement across/along the grain would risk splitting. The other iffy bit is where the hole goes through - it may not be obvious in the picture but the bottle is only supported by the neck, it does not touch the other end of the crescent; I would have liked a little more meat left either side of the hole, but I had 3/4" stock to work with. It is probably just enough.

I really enjoyed the shaping with the spokeshave; it quite quickly produced a nice shape and finish, and a very satisfying pile of shavings (for CW: which I have mixed with kitchen waste and added to the compost heap )