A few years back, after pruning a citrus tree, I noticed the nice feel of the wood so I dried a couple of branches and made chop stick rests. A very easy project since it's nothing more than a smoothed, finished length of wood. Alas, I have never served a formal Japanese dinner so the chop stick rests rest in my hutch.
After I bought my house in 2007, the dearth of cabinet and drawer pulls in the kitchen caused me to plan out a rustic look using small branches gleaned from citrus trees.
Fast forward to 2011! I pruned a friend's citrus tree and set aside a nice selection of small branches making sure to preserve some of the natural forks and bends for my handle project.
Fast forward to 2012! (I'm always going to be honest with you. The branches need to dry for quite awhile and then I need to find the time and motivation to move forward.) I cut the branches into likely sizes with my miter saw, slightly rounded the ends with an X-acto knife, sanded a bit, then finished with 2 coats of satin polyurethane.
The hard part was all the measuring, lining things up, and drilling the holes...just...right. The end result is an organic, satisfying feeling from a cool looking project that I did myself. I use an old toothbrush to clean along the top of the pulls, just in case you were wondering.
I went a little wilder on the shapes of the handles for the front of a hutch I cobbled together out of hardware store cabinets.
And now I must lament the passing of my beautiful Sears band saw. I bought it long ago while living in Missouri and I used the hell out of it but for some reason I cannot fathom I decided I didn't want to bring it with me to Florida.
What was I thinking?!
Mike knows that the way to my heart is, among a long list of things which include sugar, alcohol and...shhhh...(sex), tools! I may just ask Santa Claus for a band saw this year.
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