Bottle Stoppers

Bill Arnold

1974
Staff member
Messages
8,622
Location
Thomasville, GA
Part of my turning practice exercises over the past few months has included bottle stoppers. Here are two that I did a month or so ago. Yeah, slow to post, I know.

This one is cherry over a natural cork stopper assembly. Sanded up to 1000, applied three coats of blo/naptha, then topped it with several coats of rattle can lacquer.
BtlStpr_Cherry_a.jpg

This stopper is made with dogwood and a teardrop stopper. I have several sections of small dogwood trunks that had begun to rot on the ends because I left them outside under a roof but ends exposed. After cutting into a couple of the trunk sections, I subdivided the pieces into some I will use for pens and some larger ones for stoppers and who knows what. I stabilized several chunks for stoppers and pens using Cactus Juice. That seemed to work for this stopper. Finish is the same as the cherry stopper above.
BtlStpr_Dogwood_a.jpg

Thanks for looking. C&C welcome!
 
Nicely done, Bill. :thumb: Bottle stoppers are a great way to use up little pieces of wood that would otherwise get tossed.
 
Those are some very nice ones. I like both. Have you checked out Ruth Niles bottle stoppers. That is my favorite hardware for them. I also use her mandrel. It is fun to go through her gallery on her site. Lots of ideas. One of mine is in there about 2/3's of the way down the page.
 
Those are some very nice ones. I like both. Have you checked out Ruth Niles bottle stoppers. That is my favorite hardware for them. I also use her mandrel. It is fun to go through her gallery on her site. Lots of ideas. One of mine is in there about 2/3's of the way down the page.

Thanks, Paul. I just took a look at Ruth's site. I have a small stock of stoppers from PSI as well as two of their mandrels - might have to order some stoppers from Ruth next time.

The stopper you have on Ruth's gallery page looks great! Is that a medallion on top of it?
 
It is the base (the brass part) of a 12 gauge shotgun shell. They were very popular with family members. Here is a better picture of it. The second one has deer antler on it.

IMG_2785s.JPG
 
Well that is a real secret, but okay, I'll let it out. It is called rattle can lacquer. ;) I probably sanded them to 600 grit first. It was a couple years ago so not real sure. That is how I did the four I made this year.
 
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Thanks, Paul. Sounds like the main difference is that I used oil on mine. I've experimented with different combinations on other small turnings - oil helps on some and makes no difference on other woods. Rattle can lacquer seems to be a common item for these types of projects.
 
Bill, (and Paul;)) those stoppers look great! :thumb: I usually sand to 400 or 600, put some danish oil on them and set them on a rack to dry. A few days later I start to hit a group of them with 5-6 light coats of rattle can laquer.
 
Nice work Bill. I like dogwood too, great for handles. Nice to turn but it is a bit plain Jane on the grain side.
Lee Valley often has a few small blocks in their clearance section for 50cents.

Bill my apologies if i missed your mentioning it but why did you need to switch lathes to do this turning?
Have you made the new lathe more portable? Or was there a short coming in the bigger lathe?

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
Nice work Bill. I like dogwood too, great for handles. Nice to turn but it is a bit plain Jane on the grain side.
Lee Valley often has a few small blocks in their clearance section for 50cents.

The dogwood I got from my in-laws property had some pretty nice grain to start with. I inadvertently allowed most of it to become spalted by not covering the ends while stored under the roof of my firewood stand. In any case, what I have now looks pretty good. I've stabilized the smaller cuts before turning them.


Bill my apologies if i missed your mentioning it but why did you need to switch lathes to do this turning?
Have you made the new lathe more portable? Or was there a short coming in the bigger lathe?

Three previous threads will explain: One Two Three

The new lathe is actually a bit bigger and more powerful. My old Jet was 3/4hp; the PSI is 1hp. The Jet could do spindles to 35"; the PSI to 40". The main thing I wanted was a variable speed lathe.
 
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