I have to begin with a piece of wood that has been milled from a locally harvested tree. Since I recover trees from a local dump, this means a pickup truck, a trailer, and a winch along with a chainsaw and various related tools. When I get a load of wood home, I then remove it from the trailer with a tractor, then put it on the sawmill and cut it according to the characteristics of each piece of wood, and whatever various projects I may have going at the time. There are always flat boards to be taken from every log. I usually cut those to an inch thick.
Poplar, is very common around here, and the logs are normally able to dry after cutting in just a few weeks, as it loses moisture faster than most other hardwoods. There is quite a pile out back of the mill that I have not been too careful with, learning as I go, and the boards on that pile have not been properly stacked and dried. As such, they have warped and cupped in every direction, and are not good for quite a lot of projects such as building furniture or working on the woodshed building. But I can still bring them into the shop, cut them down to size on the bandsaw, and hit them with hand planes and have small, flat boards of say, seven by fourteen inches. It’s usually best to bring these boards into the shop a few weeks before cutting them, to equalize moisture, and keep them dry of rain and snow. This will help to assure they are not going to move after they are cut down for indoor use.
With the little boards cut to random sizes that will fit into the Glowforge, I then pull up a design, or create a new one, and etch, score, or otherwise burn it into the surface of the wood. The design will include whatever elements are meant to be on the final project such as pictures or words, and the shape of any cuts or items to be adhered. In the case of a current Christmas candle stand, I have things like a gift box, a candy cane, holly leaves, a Christmas tree, and a pair of stocking on the arms of a star. “Merry Christmas circles the base of where the candle will stand. The shape of the star is etched, and so is the location of a little metal cup to hold a candle. When this is all etched onto the board, and as many of them as the surface of the board can hold, then it is back out to the workshop it goes.
I cut the shape of the star on the bandsaw. Then I chamfer down the edges a little bit with a block plane. This is going to keep the bandsaw cuts from splintering at the edges. The sides of the cut are pretty smooth, and while they are not perfect, it shows a little bit of the markings from the teeth of the saw, and I kind of like that as the finished product is not meant to look machine finished. It is to appear handmade, in fact. Now is a fine time to apply the finish to the wood. That can be linseed oil and beeswax, or just linseed or tongue oil. Once this is applied, the little tin cup that holds a 3/4-inch standard taper candle is added, and the project is complete.
As a separate project, I pour hot beeswax into colonial styled tin candle molds and produce six-inch-tall candles. One of these is placed in the cup and will be sold as a complete unit for $9.95 each at the Christmas Fayre’s we go to in the next weeks.
I am happy with the final product as far as how it appears and how it is finished for the price I have set for it. I can make them fairly fast, and even though a laser printer demands it be babysat while it burns for safety reasons, I am able to hand dip more taper candles to sell in my online shop or at the Fayre while I do that. The laser and the candle making are all in one room. At $9.95, nothing requires a particularly fine finish, so the work is fairly minimal. The results as such are a little rustic, and the markings of a handmade product are, I think, part of the charm. Also, a selling feature here in Cache Valley is the fact the wood comes from here. Nothing has been done by a random stranger, or worse, a child in any Asian country. Once the wood of a tree is picked up by me at the local dump, it is completely handled by me, an adult being a productive member of the Cache Valley economy. A couple of my larger tools I admit have come from Asia. My hand tools are almost all made right here in the United States of America, specifically Warren Maine. My beeswax is sourced from Connecticut. I cannot honestly say off the top of my head where the candle cups, the screws, or the washers they require come from. Like the laser I use, probably they are parts that have come from Asia.
I mention everything in the last paragraph as a matter of full disclosure. I don’t want the Asian sourced items to diminish the fact that the work done to create and assemble the products I make are done here in America, by someone who is working from their own home, a little farmhouse in Idaho, and not even in a factory-like setting. I manage my own time, and make sure I get my breaks, and that I am not over worked. I have bought and paid for my own workshop, and it is laid out to my satisfaction and my own safety is my own responsibility. As my own investor, I am responsible only to me for my own returns, part of which is money, and part of it is the satisfaction I get from doing the work. A final part of it is being able to make this report to you, my customer, and I hope it helps you to understand what you have bought, and what has been done to make it. I also hope it adds to the humanity of your handmade candle and stand, and that shares a little light in your world, as it does in mine, because in the end, that is my final goal.
Thanks for visiting and learning about me and my goals in making this little candle stand and candle for you.
Kelsey J Bacon
The Peasant’s Manor Farm
Preston, Idaho, USA
Our farmhouse dates back to about 1907-1908 when it was built by the Whittle Family. We are proud to carry on the tradition of hard work and rural economy as we work to make the best things we can for you. We hope you enjoy our creativity and the process by which we make the things we do, and we enjoy making you a part of it all through sharing how we work to do what we do.
The Whittle Family and their dog in about May of 1916, posing in front of the house after completing the second half of it, effectively doubling the size of the home. In those days, a house was built in sections as it could be afforded, and as the family grew. The front end of the gable on the left was the original house, and the porch and gable on the right is the addition. The Photo is flanked with Bertha on the Left, and William on the right, and their children at the time. It is a mere moment in history captured about 108 years before this writing. I share this as a part of claiming the American Identity.