with everyone spending a lot more time at home
lately i don't know about you but i'm spending a lot more time in the kitchen cooking so i
thought this year the diy holiday gifts video would focus solely on items that you can use
in the kitchen now before i go any further i do want to point out that this is a woodworking
video which means that you'll require tools to build the things that i'm making now you don't
have to have all the tools that i have in my shop so as i go through i'll try to point out
some alternatives so you can build this too i have these leftover pieces of ash wood
that i'm going to plane down to roughly 7 millimeters or a quarter inch thick to make
some spatulas i wouldn't say ash is the ideal wood for spatulas and given the choice
i might go with maple or even olive wood so after getting them to thickness i used these
prototypes that i made to trace out the forms you could use some spatulas you have at
home or head over to my website for some free printable templates next i use my
bandsaw to cut out the forms you might be able to get away with just a jigsaw here
but of course a bandsaw will be much easier the idea here is to get just close to the lines
and cut out a rough shape the rest of the work will be done with a sander with those done i
grabbed a slightly thicker 10mm piece of wood and traced out my third spatula design and again
cut out the rough form on the bandsaw before i started shaping them further i made a hole
using a quarter inch bit in all of the handles okay so using my bench sander the first step is
to eliminate any tool marks and sand up to the line all around to refine our rough shape if you
don't have a bench sander i've seen people find ways to clamp down their orbital sander or this
can all be done by hand with a lot of patience so with my rough shapes all done it's time
to refine them this angled spatula is going to get a 45 degree chamfer on the tip just by
holding it up against the belt sander like this the next one is kind of like a crepe
spatula so i'm going to round over each side sort of like a beaver tail
until the outer edges are really thin then i just rounded over the edges of the
handle for the large hefty spatula i started by rounding over all the edges slightly
to make it more comfortable to handle i then focused on shaping the tip of the
spatula by slowly grounding down each side on a slight angle until i had a thin tip
kind of like a wedge okay so to recap we've got this hefty spatula with a thin tip
and a robust handle with rounded over edges next we have our crepe spatula (sorry about
the focus) with a beaver tail like shape and lastly we have a thinner angled spatula with
a 45 degree chamfered tip now while they're in pretty good shape i gave them a good hand
sanding to refine the shape even further this is how you really get those curves nice
and smooth and make them look professional after sanding up to 220 grit i'm still not quite done
you'll want to spray them with water at this point to raise the grain so they don't get all rough
the first time you wash them let them dry and hit them again with 220 grit paper to give them a
little style i applied some painter's tape around the handle and applied two coats of paint this
is just regular latex wall paint i had left over once dried i could remove the tape
and check that i got a nice crisp line it's important to really press down on the tape to
get a nice seal before applying the paint the last step is to apply some butcher block conditioner
let it sit for 20 minutes and then rub it off next up i'm going to make a charcuterie board or
really it could just be kitchen décor up against your backsplash you'll see what i mean i'm
again using my leftover ash wood and planning it down to about 11 millimeters next i cut a
blank that's 10 inches long and 4 inches wide and yes i use both millimeters and inches, sorry! i measured 2 inches from the side and
from the top then traced a semi-circle touching the edges on the other end i used a
small bottle cap to trace the rounded corners i drilled through on the marking using
a one and a quarter inch Forstner bit and then it's back to the bench sander to shape
the edges i slowly sanded away the excess wood using a circular motion until i reached the lines
and was left with the shape i had traced out next i used a small round over
bit to round over all the edges alternatively you could use a handheld
router for this instead or even just a sander then came the inevitable sanding sanding up to 220
grit then water popping to raise the grain then sanding again just as before with the spatulas i
applied some painter's tape to get a crisp line then painted the top part with a foam
brush i applied two coats and let it dry once dry i applied some butcher
block conditioner to the wood oh and don't be afraid to get it on the
paint you can rub it over the entire board next up i'm going to make a festive
christmas tree shaped serving board here i'm cutting a few pieces of
walnut that i'll glue up into a panel now you can buy walnut that's been
milled on all four sides and ready to use the piece i have has been planed on both
sides so i just need to clean up the edges to do this you could use a jointer or a
jointing sled / tapering jig like this after getting one straight edge i can remove
it from the sled and cut the opposite side here i'm cutting up a few strips of ash wood that
i'll use to spruce up my tree i laid them out and got ready for glue up this board will get washed
so you want to use some water resistant glue by the way you can find links to all the tools and
materials i use in this video in the description down below i'll also post details on all the
dimensions in the written article on my website and you'll find a link to that below as well
okay so after letting the board draw i took it out of the clamps and i could see that it wasn't
perfectly flat normally i would run it through my planer to even it out but it's too wide so
instead i'll just sand it down until it's flat this might take a while it's kind of hard
to see here but i traced an outline of a christmas tree that i'm going to lay over
my board and use as a template to cut it out but instead of laying it straight i decided to put
a bit of an angle on it then use the glue stick to temporarily stick it in place i could then use a
utility knife to cut out the tree and score the board ultimately transferring the outline onto it
which meant that i could then remove the stencil here's where the bandsaw comes in handy but
again a jigsaw could be used for this instead this gave me a good opportunity to practice
my bandsaw skills and trust me i need the practice my lines are not exactly straight
but hey it's supposed to be artisanal right? it turned out pretty cool if you ask me but
we're not done yet i cleaned up the bandsaw marks with my sander which also allowed me to
flatten some of the spots that were kind of wavy i sanded everything up to 220 grit making
sure to break all the sharp edges too just as before i'm going to water pop it
and let it dry before the final sanding i applied a liberal amount of butcher
block conditioner (maybe a little too much) and massaged it into all the pores then
let it sit for 20 minutes and buffed it off the last detail to make this serving
board complete i'm adding a few rubber cutting board feet underneath and that's
it i really love how this one turned out! all right next up i'm making coasters but not just
any coasters round coasters okay so here i resawed some walnut down to about 3/8 but alternatively
you could buy some 1/2 inch wood and plane it down or just make thicker coasters i'm making a
really simple pattern but you can go crazy here and make any pattern you want i use these mini
f clamps to keep everything as flat as possible during the glue up after removing clamps it feels
flat enough that i can just give it a good sanding if only my bench cookies would cooperate next i cut four blanks using my miter gauge
alternatively you could use a miter saw for this i want four inch round circles so i'm making my
blanks slightly oversized at about four and a half inches alright to cut the circles i'm
going to use my bandsaw circle cutting jig it's a really simple jig and if you want
more details be sure to check out my circle cutting video where i demonstrate four ways to cut
circles i measured two inches from the blade and inserted a pivot pin to make a four inch circle
i don't want to have to make any holes in my coasters so i'll use this scrap piece of mdf
as a dummy after finding the center i mounted it to the pivot pin i could then simply use some
double-sided tape to mount the blank to the dummy and with that i pushed the jig
into place until it stopped then rotated the piece around the
pin until i had my first circle after that i was able to just reuse the same tape
for the next piece then cut out another circle all that's left at this point is a bunch of
sanding including rounding over the edges you could use a router for this or just do it by
hand like i did before applying finish i like to clean them off using denatured alcohol i chose
to finish them with osmo polix-oil it's just so easy to apply rub it in and wipe it off
and it gives a really silky natural finish alright well i hope this video gave you a few
ideas of holiday gifts that you can make yourself here are a few other videos that you
might be interested in watching too until next time thanks for watching see you soon!
