Gandalf's Dog Beater

Well good people, it’s almost finished. It’s one of those projects that I’ve just been chipping away at – excuse the pun. I’ve never made anything like this before and it’s been a purely spontaneous exercise. If you read my previous post, you’ll know that I’m still looking for a chunky crystal to fix into the top of the handle, to give it that extra bit of ‘zap’ when beating off the stray neighbourhood dogs. Shall I talk a bit about how I made it? OK. Story goes like this:

I’m pruning some Pittosporum trees a few months back and decide that it would be a shame to dump them. No, I’m not a hoarder! I just somehow felt that perhaps in some meagre way I could acknowledge the work that nature had put in. I had about a half dozen branches about 1.5m long and an inch diameter. I made a wigwam garden feature with some of them. They look kinda nice. Anywaaaay...the staff. I had an idea in my head about how a staff might look and after several weeks of drying out the stick, I massaged it with my angle grinder. Most of the basic shape was created with an angle grinder, using a special sanding disc. These discs are awesome as they cut through timber like a knife through butter. I’ve also got this Dremel power tool. It’s a bit like what the dentist uses in as far as you can hold it in one hand and it’s got all these different bits, drills, cutting wheels that you can attach. So I use this thing to cut the detail. Then I sanded it back by hand. It’s got a couple of different colours of stain and a few coats of polyurethane. Here are the pics:

KEY IMAGE

If I made another of these, I’d do it differently: I’d sketch out the detail and plan the design rather than the impulsive approach I took. But hey, after a particularly challenging [shite] day at ‘that happy place’ [my job] it’s a great way to unwind. Yep, who would have known the relaxing power of an power tools.

Well, thanks for stopping buy. My next post will be about progress with the ‘Koru Quaver’, which, if you read my previous post, you’d know it’s actually a semi-quaver.