It's easy to do, you need a saw (a hack saw is easy to use)
Bit battered, but works okay |
My post drill. |
Hand drill -
You can buy these quite cheaply. |
Then all you need to do is slice your stick up into sections as thick or thin as you want, although the thinner the sections the harder it is to grip them for sanding.
Ready for slicing -
Gripped tightly. |
Once you have some slices of wood it's on to the next step, and this is where things get personal, it's up to you how many holes you drill, where they are and such like, I tend to drill 2 holes in each button.
Ready for drilling -
They look a little rough, but they will turn out nice. |
4 or 2 ? it's up to you. |
The next bit depends on what sort of equipment you have, if like me you have a variety of power tools then you may well have a belt sander or orbital sander, these will do for finishing the buttons as long as you use a fine grit (like 180) sanding sheet/belt if not then you can use a sheet of sand paper (again use a fine grit) and a wooden block, this will take longer, and probably make your arms ache a little, I use my lathe sander to finish the buttons, takes about 2 minutes (give or take) to finish a button.
I built a sanding wheel for my lathe, I made a short video of me using it, please remember to watch your fingers if your using a power sander of some kind, gloves might be an idea, and a mask as things will get dusty.
Sanding video -
Mind your fingers !
As you can see it doesn't take long, and apologies for the video quality, it wasn't as easy as I thought sanding and filming at the same time.
So once all the sanding is done you should have some nice smooth wooden buttons, they might be different sizes and thicknesses, but that just makes them more unique.
I tend to either give my buttons a coat of beeswax to protect them without affecting the colour, or I use linseed oil, which brings out the grain quite well, but you could wax them,varnish them, or paint them.
Finished buttons -
All done, 5 cypress & 2 pear wood. |
The pear wood is the darker one. |
Thanks for reading.
These are great! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks :-) they do turn out pretty good.
DeleteOh wow, I love these!!! cypress and pear wood are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteLOL, the first thing that came into my head when I watched your video was 'ooooh mind your fingers!' Hehe!
Gorgeous make as always :)
Thank you for linking up :)))
Thanks, I do take a great deal of care when I'm using my tools, in 20 odd years I've only had 1 serious accident, I chopped of about 5mm of one of my thumb, just damaged the skin, so nothing lasting :-) needless to say I've not done it since.
DeleteThese are really fab, I've a real thing for buttons, and these are on a different level!
ReplyDeleteThanks for saying, they do turn out good, and they make nice features on hats and such like.
DeleteI've seen some of the crafts you've done with buttons, very cool.
Oh me oh my. Buttons from sticks? AMAZING!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, sticks are the easiest thing to use for buttons, I have plans to make sets of them on my lathe, just need to build some extra tools.
Delete