Middle Earth Ranger Forum

I almost forgot to post up my mugs I've made! In highschool I turned one on a lathe with walnut and oak alternating. Then in trade school I made one with cherry strips and pine accents. The sizes aren't even close to one another but oh well, more ale the better!

http://prntscr.com/gh5wkr

Here is the pic of them both together (unfinished) The original handle on the walnut one broke off when it fell from my shelf so I made a new one. The handle on the cherry mug is actually a black locust branch that had a vine grown into it given to me by another student at my trade school. I've finally managed to work up the courage to seal the inside with some melted beeswax this evening and I think they turned out good. I couldn't really find any information about using straight beeswax to seal a mug or bowl or something like that so I just went for it. I mean its used for leather bottles so why not a wood mug. I melted in in a butter container floating in boiling water and brushed it in the mug nice and thick, then I used the hairdryer to melt it down and smooth it into the wood, pouring out the excess. I hope this will work because its already done

Looks very nice!
What kind of adhesive did you use on the layers of wood?

Titebond 3 on both I believe.

That's good; it's food-safe.

I just finished my first mug recently, a slat one like your first one, though with more colors of wood. I also used Titebond 3, which they say is safe for "indirect food contact" and meets the "ANSI/HPVA Type I water-resistance specification", which is pretty good. Adding the wax probably limits any concern over the "indirect" part. I haven't decided how to finish the inside of mine; I like the idea of beeswax, but it's not very sturdy. I have heard good things about pine pitch, especially mixed with the beeswax, but it can impart a definite taste. I could use a fancy 2-part epoxy, but that seems so wrong somehow.

Well originally I was going to use a 2 part countertop epoxy resin but the prep work and clean up is long, plus if you dont get the mixture totally perfect you get stuck with air bubbles and it looks bad. Beeswax isnt the strongest of finishes no but honestly how beat up is the inside of a mug going to get. These ones arent for treks or whatnot, just for swigging some honeymead and telling hearty tales lol. At least that was my thinking in doing so. The outside I'll probably finish with a butcher block sealer.

Of course, in "period" they wouldn't have glued pieces of wood together.

I have a wooden mug and bowl, similar to the ones seen here (on the right).


If you are still equipped to turn wood, I challenge you to use whole pieces.

Alright Kortoso, I might just have to do that! I just have to get a hold of a chunk large enough, since I mostly use scraps!

Echadron wrote:Alright Kortoso, I might just have to do that! I just have to get a hold of a chunk large enough, since I mostly use scraps!

BTW, Echadron, welcome! I just realized this was your first set of posts.

Thank you Kortoso! I've been a member for a long time, and read the forum longer than that, but never ended up posting. I decided I had better fix that!

BTW, I think this subforum was intended to use another definition of Woodcraft...

Hah! I did not even realize it was in the wrong subforum, I just saw the title about wooden mugs. I suppose if you whittled a mug out of a tree branch it might be a little closer...

XD whoooops thats my bad... I guess I've been away longer than I thought hahaha

Maybe "Bushcraft" would be a better title for this subforum?

Kortoso wrote:BTW, I think this subforum was intended to use another definition of Woodcraft...

And the ever absent Mod didn't even catch it until I saw this post. Everybody else has let it go here for this long, I think I will leave it at least for now. Until Caedmon slaps me on the wrist for it. Wait, we don't slap on the wrists here. It'll be more patrols in more dangerous places for me for a while, I'm afraid.