After trading my Crazy Finger tamper, I have been thinking about making myself another wooden tamper. This time I tried to work with chunks of Whiskey Barrel staves! I made two tampers today, and they're a little funky. Here's how I made one of them.
Used my table saw to cut some blanks from a Barrel Stave. This barrel was once used to age whiskey then purchased by a brewery in Minneapolis and used to age beer. The blanks reveal a knot in the wood, not an ideal thing, but I'm really just testing a proof of concept here. I want to make a nice pipe tamper for myself, this'll likely be another practice run.
I mark out where I want the handle to be, then start grinding the wood to rough out the tamper end.
Testing to make sure the tamper fits one of my cobs. The diameter is too big for some of the smaller cobs, but I decide to leave it as is.
Beginning to rough out the finger ridges. I want the tamper to fit comfortably in the left or right hand, but I don't want the handle to be symmetrical. The ridges are ground to suit this idea and they come out nicely.
After a bit of sanding with my flex shaft, and some burnishing with a scrap of wood from the barrel stave, the tamper is done. Here you can see both tampers that I made today! Although they're not perfect, I'm excited about the concept and can't wait to keep working with the barrel wood until I have a tamper that suits me to a T.
(Happy to send these off if someone is interested in trading.)
Used my table saw to cut some blanks from a Barrel Stave. This barrel was once used to age whiskey then purchased by a brewery in Minneapolis and used to age beer. The blanks reveal a knot in the wood, not an ideal thing, but I'm really just testing a proof of concept here. I want to make a nice pipe tamper for myself, this'll likely be another practice run.
I mark out where I want the handle to be, then start grinding the wood to rough out the tamper end.
Testing to make sure the tamper fits one of my cobs. The diameter is too big for some of the smaller cobs, but I decide to leave it as is.
Beginning to rough out the finger ridges. I want the tamper to fit comfortably in the left or right hand, but I don't want the handle to be symmetrical. The ridges are ground to suit this idea and they come out nicely.
After a bit of sanding with my flex shaft, and some burnishing with a scrap of wood from the barrel stave, the tamper is done. Here you can see both tampers that I made today! Although they're not perfect, I'm excited about the concept and can't wait to keep working with the barrel wood until I have a tamper that suits me to a T.
(Happy to send these off if someone is interested in trading.)
