Book Stand and Candle Holders

Bill Arnold

1974
Staff member
Messages
8,621
Location
Thomasville, GA
Most of my shop time lately has been several updates to the shop itself, but I have been working on some real projects, too. Our next door neighbor asked several weeks ago if I would make a book stand and candle holders from some kind of wood. I don't understand all there is about the practices in her church (Anglican), but during Advent they replace the glitzy adornments in the sanctuary with more basic items such as wooden candle holders and book stand rather than the usual bright brass items. She brought home a brass book stand for me to get an idea from and I took it from there.

Here's the finished product that I turned over to her today:
BkCndl_01.jpgBkCndl_02.jpg

They wanted a wood that was medium to dark in color, so I chose cherry. I normally don't use stain on cherry, but they wanted it a bit darker, so I wiped a reduced brown mahogany stain on to give the cherry a little more color. Top coat is wipe-on polyurethane (satin poly reduced with naphtha at about 1/1). I wiped on three coats, let it set up overnight, rubbed it with a synthetic pad, then three more coats, another rubbing, then a final three coats. These were all very light coats. To give a bit more protection to the top of the book stand, I added three more coats to the face of the book rest. A final rubout with some 0000 steel wool and everything looked pretty good.

Here are a couple of sections of the SU file. On the left is an overall view of the book stand. It was great having a 3D drawing to show what I planned for them. The base of the book stand is much like their brass one with three levels plus a top piece for the adjustment mechanism. The graphic on the right shows the components that make up the candleholder. The base of the bookstand is similar with the exception that all three lower levels of it are strips of molding like in the lower left of this drawing.

BookStand.jpgCandleholder2.jpg

The angle adjustment for the bookstand is fairly straightforward. A vertical piece on the base is sandwiched between two elements on the back of the book rest. I drilled a 3/8" hole through all thee pieces at one time to be sure they matched. The axle is a 3/8" maple dowel and the open end of the hole are covered with cherry buttons. I drilled five 1/4" holes 15° apart starting with the rest at vertical. The "lock" is just a walnut dowel with a small rectangle of walnut glued to it and shaped to make it easier to grasp.

BkCndl_03.jpg

Here's a closeup of the candleholder. The hole is 1.5" in diameter and 2" deep. The candles they use are plastic and nylon and use a liquid form of wax.

BkCndl_04.jpg

This was a nice little project to work on both for the intended purpose and because I had ample notice of the need. I kinda had mixed emotions when they insisted on paying me for the items. Not that I'm against making a few bucks, mind you! Our neighbor is fantastic and her husband died in August at the age of 96. I had thought about donating this project to the church in his name, but the lady who is kinda "in charge" of obtaining the wooden book stand and candleholders insisted that I will be paid. So, I gave them a "thank you very much".

Not to be deterred from doing a project gratis, the urn I'm building to hold our neighbor's husband's ashes will be given to her.

Well, thanks for looking and listening (reading?). As always, comments are welcomed!
 
Very nice, Bill. :clap: And I admire and understand your desire to build an urn for the neighbor's husband's ashes. :thumb:
 
Top