Every once in awhile I start to glue a a few pieces of wood together and let the result help me decide what I’ll actually make out of it. Such is the case with this candle holder. It started with three old antique pieces of pine left over from a number of old shelves I tore out of my house when I first moved in.

After gluing them together what I found was there was a mellowness to the antique stock that needed to be brought together in a way to show off the ends and the sides, but in a functional way too.

Which of course leads to even more gluing to bring the shape to life. Or maybe it’s better to say a chance to try to make something interesting out of something that would normally be headed for a scrap pile or a fire pit somewhere.

And of course there is the need to add a little design aesthetic too. Hence the base, the and the oak dowel cutouts inserted into the design. All that’s left is to break out the drill and then to shape the final design.

The next stage took a bit of finessing, a bit of sanding, and a little routing work. once completed, it’s always good to do a test fit to make sure everything works out okay.

After that, all it takes is a few coats of polyurethane, and we have a pretty nice looking little candle holder block with a perfect little cut out to hold the matches. The look of antique pine always has a color that you just cannot recreate.