Awesome Wood

A matchstick seems like a simple little thing – a piece of wood dipped in flammable chemicals. But this video from Wow Things shows just how many steps it takes to turn timber into thousands of tiny sticks. Pakistan’s Kite Safety Match factory in uses a mix of humans and machines to produce matches and their packaging.

Carved makes these unique rings using the same techniques as their beautiful phone cases and other eyecatching objects. Each one features an inlay of burled wood and colorful resin set into a 316L stainless steel band. They come in five colors and ring sizes from 5 to 12.

Audiophiles and tech junkies generally prefer component systems. We love the look of this equipment rack from Silver Beard Lamp Co. It’s handmade from thick threaded rods, bolts, and blackboard – birch laminated plywood with a layered pine core. It comes in 4- and 5-tier heights and sizes from 22″ x 12″ to 30″ x 22″.

Want a recording studio in your home? This tiered workstation is ideal for music or video production. It has three smooth-gliding shelves for keyboards, controllers, and other equipment and a top shelf for an ultra-widescreen or multiple displays and speakers. It measures 60″ W x 40″ H x 15″ D, and comes in a variety of wood finishes.

With enough skill and epoxy resin, you can make a guitar out of just about anything. Maker Noe Hervas shows off a colorful electric guitar he built by cutting a custom wood mold, filling it with stacks of guitar picks bathed in clear resin. At least he saved one pick to play it with.

Despite its bargain price, Mossy Oak’s pocket knife is handsome, versatile, and durable. It features a stainless steel drop-point blade, along with a built-in bottle opener, glass breaker, and pocket clip. Its stonewashed finish and wooden handle scales give it a great look too.

Woodworker and artist Blake Weber shows us the incredible and laborious process behind making this beautiful cabinet. The most remarkable feature is the set of curved doors he built by bending different colors of wood. He actually made two of these – one for himself and he sold the other one on his website.

An ordinary Scrabble set comes with 100 letter tiles. So if you want to make word art out of them, it could get pretty expensive. These bulk tile sets give you 500 wooden tiles that are perfect for craft projects – or for making your Scrabble games a bit more interesting.

Mega Process takes us on a tour of Zion Industrial Co., which apparently is the last shovel factory in South Korea. The laborious process starts with freshly-cut oak trees, milling the timber into boards, sanding until round, trimming, then splitting, steaming, and bending the wood to hold the shape for its handle.

Created by Debosc, the Detray is a flexible tray made from plywood that can wrap around the arm of your sofa, providing a more stable surface than fabric, and protecting your furniture from spills. Available in cherry, maple, oak, or wengé wood.

A chakram is a throwing weapon that first appeared in the 5th-century BCE in India. The original weapons were simply a sharpened circle, but video game versions have evolved to add deadly spikes around their circumference. In this video, DIYer The S shows off an awesome retractable-spike chakram made from popsicle sticks.

The kalimba is a small musical instrument that’s played by thumping your fingers on its springy metal keys. But the same idea can be DIYed using a bunch of popsicle sticks, screwed in place at varying lengths along a board. Mr. Mash shows off his homemade instrument, along with an abridged version of his how-to video.

We’re always fascinated by sculpture videos because they show how simple materials can become beautiful works of art in the right hands. Vladimir of Old School Carving took a stack of oak wood, glued it into a rough shape, carved it with an angle grinder, then refined it into a majestic wooden lion with hand tools.

Paul Jackman often makes things from reclaimed pallet wood. This time, he used the wood to craft 100 screwdrivers for his sponsor ISOTunes. He first milled the pieces down into sticks, cut and milled them into hexagons, then shaped them into their final form on a lathe. He also put a hidden compartment into each handle.

When you want to start a fire, it’s important that you have dry wood. Logs that have been sitting around and getting rained on are very difficult to keep lit. The Hydraulic Press Channel wanted to see if they could use mechanical force to extract enough water from damp timber that it would be dry enough to light.

The Bugatti Centodieci is an incredible car, inspired by the automaker’s 110+ year history. Just 10 of the cars were produced, at a price of $9 million each. The guys from ND Woodworking Art couldn’t quite afford one, so they built a kid-sized version out of wood. It has working lights, steering, and a basic drivetrain.

Artist Cameron Oehler of 1337motif makes awesome cutting boards and coasters inspired by video game pixel art. This set of six wooden coasters features pixelated images of Mario, Mushroom, Star, Boo, Bob-omb, and Goomba, each made from hundreds of cubes of colorful wood.

Build your own desktop solar system with this wooden model kit from Robotime. As you crank its handle, eight tiny worlds spin around a glowing sun, simulating the relative speeds of each planet’s rotation. The 316-piece, 13.78″ tall model is best for advanced builders and takes about 7 hours to assemble.

This short, but highly satisfying video takes us inside a workshop for a look at how to make perfect spheres from wood. The process involves using a curved cutting blade against a dowel that’s been attached to one end of a lathe. Be sure to check out tesssxkiersten82’s TikTok for more hypnotic woodworking videos.

Carved makes all kinds of beautiful accessories from wood and colored resin. Their standing desk is a masterpiece, with swirls of blue resin ocean washing up against a burled maple shoreline. Sadly, this one-off sold in 4 minutes, but follow their Facebook and Instagram pages for future releases.

For this Scrapwood Challenge, carpenter Neil Paskin created a beautiful modern pendant lamp. He created its cylindrical shape by gluing small wood segments into circles that he routed smoothly. To create the organic perforations in the shade, he drilled randomly placed holes and then painstakingly routed each one by hand.

Last Leg Woodworks shows us how they made this cool piece of modern wall art using Inventables’ X-Carve Pro CNC machine and their free Easel software. The piece was carved out of 77 slices of baltic birch plywood, then hand-assembled using mortise and tenon joints.

Wood seems like a terrible material to make a cushion out of, given its hardness. But Kurahito Craft shows how – with a little ingenuity – it’s feasible to build a pliable (and possibly comfortable) wooden seat using a wooden spring-making technique.