On a kick of projects involving splitting wood and making stuff out of it. This project fell in line with a handfull of other projects recently done using wood from a friends pear tree cut down last fall. The branch you see below was my starting piece.
I used a hand saw to cut about a 2 inch section.
One good wack with an axe and we have a split.
I wasn't bold enough to wack it a second time. I placed the axe along the line I wanted cut and tapped with a hammer twice. Three hits to make three sections below.
I took the middle section and did a little smoothing with a small hand plainer.
After smooth I used a hand carving knife to cut into the shape you see below.
More shaping, but no sanding. I used a carving knife to ensure that all the sharp edges were gone and no spliters would snag my thread.
Done! Oiled it up a bit with some olive oil. I let sit a while and then filled up the spool with 50 meters of white linen thread. I made a small V-cut in the end to feed the end of the thread through. this will hold the end in place when not in use.
