A couple bottle stoppers

[Doug B]

I made a couple new bottle stoppers too. I am way low in inventory on stoppers, so I need to get a few more made. Here are a couple just completed.

First is Boxelder Burl, this one does not have any pink flame, but is pretty nonetheless. I really like using burn lines on wood this light colored.


And I was down to a single Pine Cone stopper, so I am making a couple more, including this one.

[triplefreak]

Nice work. I like that pine cone thingy.

[boodrow]

Beautiful stoppers Doug, I like um both , I agree the burn lines in my opion adds somethin to it. The cone as always it looks great.
Boodrow

[sachbvn]

Doug, I like both of those - a lot!

In the B.E. stopper - are those small beads around the burn lines - or are the burn lines just real deep? See what I mean? In the picture it almost looks like each "section" is beaded.

Very neat - as always, the pine cone stoppers are great!


Zac

[Doug B]

Thanks guys.

Yes, I basically made the beads then burned the lines in after the beads were turned. I did not plan it that way, it just kinda happened that way

[maverick31]

both stoppers look great doug, I like how you placed the inclusion right in the middle. great job. are both finished with ca. I think I am going to switch to poly for most stoppers going forward. Wipe on poly and full strength. Today hit 78 in another month or so we will be consistently in uppr 80s/90s so they should cure quick.

[Doug B]

Mav, I am using the Lacquer dipping method and liking it more and more for bottle stoppers. However, these 2 had to be CA finish.

The pine cone is fully saturated with CA anyway by the time it is turned to shape and so I just add a couple coats of medium CA to finish it. The BEB had that inclusion (not really bark) that I needed to fill with CA, so it got finished with CA too. But I find using CA to be really iffy with stoppers when they have a lot of contours to them, so I'm using Lacquer more and more often these days. It takes longer, but is super easy. The Poly finish still takes too long for my liking

[maverick31]

I agree it is hard to do ca finishes on stoppers due to the contours. I have a couple of pens going with full strength poly as instructed by les and am really impressed with results. I will of course post pics when done in next week or two

[jb34]

The pinecone is very cool. I enjoy seeing the stoppers and pens people do on here with pinecone. With the first one I really like the inperfection in the wood. If that was not there I would think ok that is nice and move on. But the inperfection adds a lot of character.

[Doug B]

I'm looking forward to seeing your Poly finished pens Mav. I used it one time and it took several days because the 3rd coat took forever to cure. But it sure was a nice finish.

Joel, it is funny that the imperfections are sometimes what really makes a turned piece stand out. I had no intention of saving that area when I first started turning the stopper, but it just looked too cool to turn off so I left it in. The stopper is probably fatter than it should be because of that, but it's nice to know that someone else liked it too - thanks.

[jb34]

Were there then Doug. It definately makes the difference from good to great. I have made the comment to people before that's character. If boards had no grain or inperfections there would be no point. Who wants bland. The inperfections and grain add character and warmth to pieces. I like the fattness of this stopper. I don't have a lathe. I have resisted the "Vortex". I love looking at turned stuff and I have figured out other ways to do things that people usually do on a lathe. But I have looked. Seeing stuff like this gets me closer. Thanks for sharing it.