This stacked wooden sugar bowl was inspired by a wood whisperer piece that was used as a salt cellar.  I made two of these – the wood-donor uses it for a couple of different kinds of salt while we use ours as a sugar bowl.  I always liked white sugar in my tea and raw in my coffee (although I now use raw in both, if you care), so I wanted a fairly compact way to have both on the counter.  A good friend found a warped piece of bird’s eye maple in the garage of his new house and figured (insert own, “no i said bird’s eye” gag here) that I might be able to use it.  After planing it down, I decided to use it in several smaller sections due to the extent of the warping.

I used a piece of the bird’s eye maple that was a little over 1/2″ deep, and 1 3/4″ deep pieces of cherry and walnut and cut them to size.  In hindsight, I would use a slightly thinner piece of each of the cherry and walnut, as the flush-trim router bit that I have didn’t easily reach the template on top.

  After drawing the outline of the pieces on a piece of 1/2″ ply, I used a drill press and a hole set to drill two overlapping, but different sized holes that I then used a rasp to even out the edges so that there was one suitably sized and shaped hole to use as a template for the wooden sugar bowl.

 
I glued all three pieces together with paper in between them so that I could work with them temporarily as one piece of wood.  I then sanded them and rounded the edges on the belt sander.

  After sanding, the three pieces were pried apart with a putty knife and then the paper was sanded off on the belt sander.  Following that, the bulk of the material was removed with a forstner bit, and then the templates shown above were used to rout out the final bowl-holes.

  After routing, the wooden sugar bowls were sanded and then mineral oil was applied.  After resting for a day, Odie’s wood butter was used to seal and stabilize the wood, and act as the final finish.

  The almost finished article(s).  (After this, i inserted magnets to make the lids close to a specific point.)  The sugar bowls (ok, he uses his as a salt bowl…) came out nicely, but not all that well balanced with their height.

  I’m not sure this post shows how great the bird’s eye maple is, but here is a close up – just amazingly bright and textured:

This was a house-warming present for two friends who had just moved into a new house.  This was a hefty piece of Maple, some half inch thick purple heart, and some large stainless steel angles, drilled and screwed into the maple.

Once I had finished it with Odie’s wood butter, the purple heart turned more red-looking, and ultimately make this piece look like the Scotsman’s favourite: the England flag.  I thought I was safe with the American recipients, but after a few minutes, he looked at me and said, “St. George?”.  Damn it.