Awesome Wood

Reimagined Wood Shop has the perfect gift for the video game fan that has everything. This substantial 12″ x 5″ valet tray holds your coins, wallet, phone, keys, and more, all while looking like the classic Nintendo Entertainment System controller. Each one is CNC-carved from a block of solid lumber and comes in a variety of woods.

Artist Ross McSweeney created these fascinating mechanical coasters. There are four smooth-spinning patterns, including geometric shapes, gears, and a bicycle. Their outer gears touch when placed next to each other so that you can spin multiple designs simultaneously. You can purchase the SVG files for laser cutting on Etsy.

Artifact Design Co. makes these cool, laser-cut wood racks for displaying collectible toy cars. Each tiny parking space has a cutout to keep the vehicle aligned and its wheels from rolling while allowing easy access for playtime. They come in 1:24-, 1:32- and 1:64-scale sizes and hold collections from 12 to 132 cars.

The TIE fighters from Star Wars are some of the most intimidating spacecraft in the history of science fiction. Scott’s Mini Workshop celebrates the Empire’s starfighter by encasing it in resin, then turning it into a perfect sphere on his lathe. He’s also made an X-Wing fighter sphere using the same technique.

This elegantly-designed wood ruler from Italy’s LL Design Studio appears to defy gravity when placed on its base. Its mitered ends and a strong magnet at one end let it balance at a 40º angle against its stand. It also has a magnet in its back so you can attach it to metal surfaces. Available in inches or centimeters.

Whether you have one wristwatch or a bunch, these hexagonal cases from EcoWoodCo provide a great way to protect and display your collection. Each one is crafted from sustainably-harvested walnut wood and can be ordered with a wood or glass front. Available in configurations from 1 to 10 hexagons.

In mythology, Sisyphus was a man punished for cheating death by having to roll a boulder uphill only to have it roll back down as he neared the top. Artist Ross McSweeney created this amazing laser-cut wooden automaton that animates the core of the story. You can purchase template files for the sculpture on his Etsy shop.

We’ve seen shipping pallets recycled into coasters, pencils, a guitar, and skateboards. Bushcraft builder Lesnoy went above and beyond by making an entire tiny house primarily from reclaimed pallet wood. Watch and enjoy this soothing video as he builds a dwelling from scratch in the woods.

Intrism is back with a smaller version of their wooden maze puzzle-in-a-cube. The 3D labyrinth comes in kit form, with 130 pieces of laser-cut wood and a clear acrylic shell. Once assembled, you’ll spend hours guiding its marble through twists and turns and 50 obstacles. Measures 6″x6″x6″.

Grandpa Amu has spent decades of his life crafting objects from wood. In this video, you’ll see him turn a block of safflower pear wood into a detailed fire truck. What makes this gift for his grandson even more remarkable is that all of the pieces connect using wood joints, requiring no glue or nails to hold them together.

Wood Marble Machine builds exactly what their YouTube channel name says. This modular machine carries steel ball bearings up a double escalator and then rolls them back down through a series of ramps, bowls, and a spinning pachinko board before doing it all over again. The sounds it makes are wonderfully soothing.

These minimalist wallets feature a lightweight shell made from wood or carbon fiber and held together with a stretchy elastic band. They can hold up to 15 credit card and have an RFID-blocking layer. A metal money clip holds up to eight folded bills on the outside.

For the 2022 Great Guitar Build Off, artist Uri Tuchman set out to create a unique musical instrument that looks like the iconic Les Paul electric guitar, but it’s emerging from a solid rectangle of wood. In keeping with the motif, he made custom square brass knobs for the dials. We love the engraved details on the pick guard too.

Woodworker Ryan Hawkins shows us the time-consuming and laborious process that went into building a truly stunning piece of furniture. He built the 24″ x 48″ coffee table from maple, cherry, and walnut wood, incorporating a herringbone pattern into its top, inspired by a design from cutting board artist MTMWood.

Standing 20 stories tall, The Wood Hotel is the world’s tallest hotel mainly made from wood. Located at the birthplace of cross-country skiing, Skellefteå in Swedish Lapland, the 205-room property was built from locally harvested spruce and pine which smells awesome and absorbs more CO2 than it uses.

This unique wine rack from artists Jeremiah and Kassy Reynolds makes a great centerpiece. Each is handmade in Arkansas using reclaimed oak staves from authentic Napa Valley wine barrels. Its curved form and cross-bars keep bottles from rolling off, and it can hold up to six bottles when stacked in a pyramid.

We’ve never seen a slingshot that looks quite like this one. Wood Art TG made this unique and elegant weapon from scratch. It has an elongated body, an elastic launching mechanism, and a finger trigger and can dish out some seriously destructive power.

Looking for a gift for a book lover who already has a full library? These solid wood coasters from Cutting Boredom make a great present for bookworms. They come in more than 20 different designs, each inspired by the cover of a classic piece of literature. Sold in sets of two or more.

Process X takes us inside Japan’s Kita-Boshi Pencil Co., a factory that cranks out pencils by the thousands each day, shaving shapes out of cedar and cypress wood and filling them with leads before gluing them together, shaping, and sharpening them. Oh, and if you need an eraser, they’ve got you covered.

After seeing the Mercedes Vision AVTR concept car in 2020, ND Woodworking was wowed by its curvaceous body and futuristic design. He then got to work, spending more than 100 days sculpting a scale replica of the car out of wood. The kid-sized version sits atop a metal frame with a working electric drivetrain.

We love the clean and minimal look of this wooden pen and pencil organizer from Design Craft Workshop. It’s handcrafted from walnut and provides three angled shelves to keep your writing instruments from falling off your desk. The subtle curved inner edge is a nice touch. Measures 8.75″ L x 6.75″ W x .75″ H.

Artist Han Hsu-Tung creates wooden sculptures of organic forms caught in the middle of a digital glitch. He seamlessly melds smooth shapes with square ones to achieve a surreal effect in his human and animal subjects. Here’s a video showing how he makes one of his pieces… and it involves a chainsaw.

Making things from wood takes time. But if you’re a stop-motion animator like Omozoc, everything goes much, much faster. In the latest video from their Stop Motion Woodworking series, they created a small tray using nothing a thumb and an index finger as tools.