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Materials:
- 1" x 8" pine board
- 80- and 100-grit sandpaper
- Seven 3" Shaker- style wood pegs (available at Home Depot or
Lee Valley Tools)
- Milk paint
- Glue
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Tools
- Wood rasp
- Gloves
- Gripper mat
- Electric palm sander or sandpaper wrapped around a block of
wood
- Tack cloth
- Drill
- ½" drill bit (or bit to fit peg dimensions)
- Carving tools - you can either by a set, or just a parting v-tool
and/or chip carving knives
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Tools you might not be familiar with
Chip-carving knives |
Parting v-tools |
Wood rasp
(
mine doesn't have a handle)
- these are available at Lee Valley Tools |
Set of carving tools for traditional carving
(
you only really need the v-shaped one for this project) |
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Steps:
Use
traditional milk paint for the surface color |
Milk
paint comes in many colors and can be mixed to create even more
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Preparing the board.
Determine how long your coat-rack should be. Mine is 56" -
too big for my entry way. Don't let this happen to you. Measure
first.
Cut a pine board to length, then paint it with milk paint
or acrylic.
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Use
a rasp to distress the corners and edges creating a worn look
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Use
a sander to soften the color |
Tip
- Reload your palm sander with several layers of paper |
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After it's dry, use coarse sandpaper (80 grit) or a wood
rasp to break down the corners and edges of the painted board.
Scrape and sand the paint in a random, organic fashion that
makes the board look worn and homey.
The contrast between the painted surface and the exposed
wood may seem a bit harsh to your eye. If so, sand the whole
surface with finer sandpaper (100 grit). An electric palm-sander
expedites the process.
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Use
a tack cloth to remove the dust |
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| Use a tack cloth to remove dust after sanding. This brings
out the grain of the wood. |
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Find
and mark the center |
Mark the boad at chosen intervals |
Use
another board or straight edge to help mark for holes |
| Measure to find the center of the board and mark the point
with a pencil. Place a straight-edge (another board works well)
on that mark and square it to the underlying board. This will
give you a good straight line along which to mark points for
pegs. Seven inches is a good interval for pegs. If the pegs
are too close, the coats knock each other to the floor, so be
generous with the spacing. |
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Choose
the correct drill bit |
Mark
the drill bit at the correct depth |
Drill the holes on the marks |
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Referring to one of your pegs, choose a drill bit that matches
the diameter of the end that will be inserted into the hole.
Drill all the holes to a depth of ½" (or the depth required
by your pegs).
If you have trouble telling how deep you're drilling, mark
the correct depth on the end of your drill bit using a piece
of masking tape.
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Three
simple carving tools used to make the relief carving on top |
Carving
using a v-groove carving tool |
Carving
using a micro v-groove carving tool for finer work |
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Before you glue the pegs in place, consider the option
of carving a design on the coat rack. There are lots of
half-day or evening chip-carving or relief-carving courses
available, and it really only takes a couple of hours to
get a decent grounding in the basics.
Carving tools cost roughly $50, and keeping them sharp
is half the fun. I took a two-hour chip-carving course at
Lee Valley Tools in Toronto
that taught me enough to do the carving on my coat rack.
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You can work with either a v-shaped parting tool, or a chip
carving knife. Pine can be sinewy to carve, so for a real treat,
get some basswood from a woodworker's supply place. Basswood
carves like butter, and has no knots or grain irregularities.
You can also carve candles for Christmas presents. Just remember
to wedge the candle securely so that it doesn't roll while you're
working on it.
For safety, use a non-skid vinyl mat under the board as you
carve. Here's another safety tip: never work on your
carving late at night when you're tired. I still have a scar
on my hand from carving a paddle in bed at camp when I was 17.
Fortunately I had a top bunk so I could tie my hand to the rafters
for the night to slow the bleeding. |
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Finally, glue the pegs in place |
Finished
coat rack |
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| After finishing your carving, glue the pegs in place using
carpenter's glue or white glue. |
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Artisans'
work featured on this episode:
(click pics for Artist info and larger
images)
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