Xmas stars and getting ready

[Rob Young]

So most people may already know that Paul Sellers has a nifty video over on YouTube about making little thick-veneer Xmas stars.  And I've made a bunch in the past to use for gift tags.  Several people at my local woodworking club (Kansas City Woodworkers' Guild) have expressed interest in making them, but needed a kick in the pants to get it done.  Not everybody is comfortable learning from watching a video or reading.  Since I've long ago embraced failure and experimentation, I recruited another KCWG member to help me on the 29th walk a bunch of people through the process.

Anyway, that means I should probably warm up a bit and make sure I can still do these.  I don't do things quite the way they are shown in the YouTube video.  I've made some changes to the process that fit me.  Mostly having to do with the way pieces are managed during the final fitting.  Still all hand work to end up with stars that are anywhere from 1/16" to 1/8" thick.  Just depends on what you want.

Pretty much all done with scrap wood.  Helps if it is at least 8" long because then you have something to hold on to.  As it gets smaller, the trick is less about precision sawing and more about how do you hold onto the silly thing!

Quick practice to make sure I could still saw at 36° to make 5-pointed stars as well as 45° for the 4-pointed model.  Just grabbed a stick of punky pine to re-calibrate the muscle memory.


And nothing says you can't mix-and-match species (all walnut for one and half poplar, half sycamore for the other).  Fiddling about with dying a star too.


These make great pieces for inlay.  Here's a pair of them done to make a sort of compass rose.  You inlay first the back one, then the top one.  Rosewood and maple in rift-sawn red oak.



And fiddle with the dimensions.  This one is maybe 1" at the widest but 4"-ish center to tip.



Another 5-point, sycamore and sapelle I think.


Short and stubby because the scraps were getting kinda small!

[Strokes77]

Those are great, thanks for sharing. Very inspiring.

[C. in Indy]

This is definitely inspiring!

Any tips on the inlay (material removal) process to go along with the star-building process?


Chris

[Rob Young]

A palm router with a large custom base does great on the donkey work part.

Plenty of light.

Cover area to remove in blue tape, knife around target and remove tape from area. Repaining tape shows clearly where to work.