Awesome Wood

Etsy shop Foxbairn makes custom family tree or genealogy chart engravings on a cross-section of a tree. The laser engraving is highly detailed, and the wood is obtained from a sustainable forest. They offer the chart in 3-, 4-, or 5-generation versions.

Keith Williams of Oddball Gallery shows off a sculpture he created from birch plywood. He first cut and assembled 180 triangular pieces into a geodesic orb, then sanded it to smooth the edges and reveal its grain. The sander time-lapse is so awesome. Here’s its little brother.

Each and every Satellite phone case is one of a kind. Its makers at Carved create them by pouring colored resins over hunks of burled wood that they then slice thin. The resulting designs are beautiful, organic, and unlike any other phone case.

We recently saw how a table saw could be pushed outside of its comfort zone by using one to create wood spindles. Now, woodworker French River Springs shows us how he was able to make a turned wood bowl using a table saw, a drill, and a custom jig. The fun starts at 8:21.

Table saws were designed for ripping straight through pieces of wood or other building materials. But maker Izzy Swan decided to see if he could do something unconventional with his saw. With the help of a custom jig, he managed to create turned wood spindles on his.

Alder + Ash presents a beautifully handcrafted mini cruiser board, lovingly made from a reclaimed oak whiskey barrel. It rides on 59mm Bones “all terrain” wheels with red bearings, and sports independent Bullet trucks.

By laser-cutting patterns into a sheet of plywood, it can be made pliable enough to bend around a corner like a sort of hinge. Laser Artisan shows off a number of hinge patterns and tests them to see which ones are most flexible. Skip to 1:37 for the bendy bits.

While the weight of a suitcase made from wood makes it a bit impractical, we still love the look of this beautiful piece of luggage that Ollari’s created from bent pieces of 8mm thick plywood. It always amazes us the kind of things you can do with just wood, glue, and some skill.

Creep out your friends and family with this amazing hand-carved wooden bust of the Predator. In addition to this foot-tall beast, Etsy shop Love My Custom Wood makes all kinds of nifty carved wood sculptures inspired by science fiction and pop culture.

Pask Makes likes to build objects out of scrap wood. He recently attempted to make his own LEGO-style building blocks, and came to find it’s much more difficult than you might think due to the precision required to make them stack. Watch his earlier attempt here.

Jackman Works shows us how he transforms old cargo pallets into sweet drink coasters by sanding, stacking, cutting, and laminating strips of their varied wooden slats into grid patterns. Show your appreciation for his craftsmanship, and buy a set of the coasters here.

For his latest build, Jackman Works created a jumbo-sized, hand-carved wood replica of a utility knife. It’s fully-functional, and just the right size for opening Paul Bunyon’s Amazon packages. He got the inspiration for the giant knife blade from fellow builder Jimmy DiResta.

Up for a fun and challenging project with a satisfying result? Look no further than this wooden model of a London-style double decker bus. Once you assemble all 216 laser-cut parts, you’ll have a working vehicle that can actually move up to 12 feet on rubber band power.

Woodworker Frank Howarth has a thing for spheres, so it only makes sense that he would craft a wooden replica of the iconic, pixel-patterned adidas Telstar 18 football used in the 2018 World Cup. We don’t recommend kicking or heading this ball, though.

Maker of things Izzy Swan shows off a building technique that makes it look like layers of wood have been woven together into a form that should be impossible to pull off. We won’t give away the trick, but it takes a whole lot of work to pull off the illusion.

Artist Heath Knuckles creates stunning organic works of art by taking pieces of uniquely textured wood, cutting them into layers, and filling the in-between bits with colored resin. He then works them on the lathe into a perfect spherical shape. More here.