Backyard Birds – Part 32

Earlier in the summer, I bought some scraps of ebony from another woodworker in Western Massachusetts.

I decided to try making a handle for the drawer of my cabinet out of a long, thin piece of scrap ebony. I cut the scrap into shorter pieces and the glued the pieces together to make a chunkier block of wood.

I cut the ebony block down to an even, rectangular shape.

I made markings on the block to indicate where I wanted the edges of my handle to be.

I used the orbital sander to sand down to the markings. The video below (which is from a later stage of sanding) shows how the sander works.

I kept sanding the surfaces of my block down until I had the shape that I wanted.

I did most of the sanding on the orbital sander, but I did a little bit of sanding by hand on a sandpaper block to make the edges really crisp.

I liked the way the handle came out, so I made a second one.

After I made the handles, I realized that I should have drilled screw holes in them before I sanded them down. I had to build a little jig out of scrap wood to keep them steady and upright while I drilled holes in them.

The jig worked well, and I had no trouble screwing the handles onto the drawer of the cabinet.

I swept up a bunch of the ebony dust from sanding the handles. I put it in a little bottle, and maybe someday I’ll think of something to do with it.