Mike's Wood Gifts By Design: 2009

Eucalyptus Burl Consecrated Oil Vial

Eucalyptus is an Australian wood, very popular among Australian woodturners, and for good reason. It has widely varying figure, and is a warm, light brown color. It looks awesome when it's turned and it finishes up nicely, to a semi gloss sheen from sanding with no finish applied.

All my LDS Consecrated Oil Keyring Vials are made from gold or chrome-plated parts. A unique, handmade, a perfect gift for any Elder, whether dad for Fathers Day, brother for Mission Farewell, or a son for his ordination to the priesthood. Inside is a glass vial that can just as easily hold perfume or essential oils.

Price: $25.00By clicking on "Order Now," buyer agrees to these terms.

Kingwood Consecrated Oil Vial

Kingwood, also called Violetwood or

Violete because of its purple cast, is from a slender low tree native to Brazil. It is called kingwood because in the 18th and 19th century it was a favorite wood of French kings for their furniture. It is fairly rare, and its fine texture and stability makes it a prized wood for inlay work, wood turning, and fancy accessories.

Canarywood Consecrated Oil Vial

All my LDS Consecrated Oil Keyring Vials are made from gold or chrome-plated parts. A unique, handmade, a perfect gift for any Elder, whether dad for Fathers Day, brother for Mission Farewell, or a son for his ordination to the priesthood. Inside is a glass vial that can just as easily hold perfume or essential oils.

Canarywood heartwood is yellow or orange, typically streaked with "rainbow-hued" colors, often mixed with shades of red or brown. Sapwood is yellow. Turns easily.

Price: $25.00By clicking on "Order Now," buyer agrees to these terms.

Zebrawood and Chrome Consecrated Oil Keyring Vial

This vial is hand-turned from African Zebrawood. Also called Zebrano, African zebrawood trees can reach in excess of 150'. Diameters commonly measure between 5' and 7'. Heartwood is light golden-yellow with streaks and veining of dark chocolate brown. Dries slowly, and tends to surface check and end-split during seasoning. Coarse texture and interlocked grain must be surfaced wih care. High-luster finish on this wood makes it extremely decorative.

All my LDS Consecrated Oil Keyring Vials are made from gold or chrome-plated parts. A unique, handmade, a perfect gift for any Elder, whether dad for Fathers Day, brother for Mission Farewell, or a son for his ordination to the priesthood. Inside is a glass vial that can just as easily hold perfume or essential oils.

Price: $25
By clicking on "Order Now," buyer agrees to these terms.

Bocote Wood Consecrated Oil Vial

These consecrated oil vials are hand-turned from Bocote and 10-k Gold plated parts. All my LDS Consecrated Oil Keyring Vials are made from gold or chrome-plated parts. A unique, handmade, a perfect gift for any Elder, whether dad for Fathers Day, brother for Mission Farewell, or a son for his ordination to the priesthood. Inside is a glass vial that can just as easily hold perfume or essential oils.

Bocote, sometimes called Mexican Zebrawood, is a Central and South-American wood that is highly sought after in woodturning, and for good reason. Color varies from mustard-yellow to creamy brown, with somewhat wavy, black stripes. A small tree seldom growing larger than 12" in diameter. Freshly cut bocote has a green tinge, and is oily to the touch. It has an herby, dill-like scent when cut.

Price: $25.00By clicking on "Order Now," buyer agrees to these terms.

Olive Wood Consecrated Oil Vial Keyring

Some olive trees have been alive since the time of Christ. A long-lived gnarled tree with a short bole, often with numerous holes and cavities, olive wood is one of the world's most beautiful woods. Heartwood is light brown to dark brown with irregular streaks of grey, brown, and black, giving a marble-like appearance. Irregular, interlocked grain is dense, turns easily and cuts very clean. These aromatic blanks are selecte

d for figure and color. And aromatic isn't putting it mildly - when cut, this wood smells very strongly of opened green olives and olive oil - I guess that shouldn't be a surprise. In addition to its beautiful caramel and chocolate swirling grain patterns, olive wood has special religious significance that makes a consecrated oil vial especially treasured and unique. It's somehow fitting to use olive wood to store the olive oil. For an additional $10.00, wood from prunings of live olive trees in the Holy Land can be used.

Laminated Hardwood Consecrated Oil Vial

As I work with exotic woods, I save the thin cut-offs, and combine them to create dramatic, beautiful results. Look closely at the first vial pictured and you'll see walnut, bloodwood, maple, and purpleheart. The second, from left to right, is made from padauk, zebrawood, ebony, purpleheart, zebrawood, blackwood, bloodwood, zebrawood, and purpleheart again. These vials are completely unique, as individual as the person they're made for.

Elm Keyring Consecrated Oil Vial

All my LDS Consecrated Oil Keyring Vials are made from gold or chrome-plated parts. A unique, handmade, a perfect gift for any Elder, whether dad for Fathers Day, brother for Mission Farewell, or a son for his ordination to the priesthood. Inside is a glass vial that can just as easily hold perfume or essential oils.

Elm wood is hard, with coarse, interlocking grain. It polishes to a satin sheen with no finish applied, and has a comfortable woody smell when cut or sanded. It is hard, and resistant to cracking and splitting. The vial shown above shows the darker heartwood, and the lighter sapwood, for a unique and beautiful vial. Please specify if you want sapwood in your vial.
Price: $25.00By clicking on "Order Now," buyer agrees to these terms.

Custom Party Favors - Can't Beat a Hand-Turned Pen!

I call my business Mike's Woodwork By Design for a reason - the projects I enjoy the most, and those that set me apart from mass-produced production lines, are the projects where I work with a customer (or as I think of them, a client) to design a solution that fits their unique needs. This project was another good example of that. My "client" was fast approaching his 40th birthday, and was having a special party of his close friends. He wanted to give them a party favor that was really nice, something they would never get from any other place, so he ordered hand-turned pens. Those on the left are ambrosia maple, those on the right are birdseye maple, and all of them are beaded Artisan slimline pens. He was in a real hurry to get them delivered on time - placed his order on Tuesday, delivered on Friday. It was a success, and he had a great party.

Imagine the possibilities - corporate gifts, company Christmas presents for your employees, Best Man present for your wedding, or a way to say "thank you, job well done" to your project team after they go the extra mile to meet a deadline on a critical project. Design your pens, place your order, and I'll make sure to give every attention to detail for a unique, meaningful gift. Prices start at $25 per pen for large orders like this.

Bloodwood LDS Consecrated Oil Vial

Bloodwood is actually a name for several types of reddish wood. This is the Brosimum Rubescens botanical name, and is hard and tough, with no smell at all, unless it's smoking hot, in which case it smells like coconut and sweet incense. Shavings are a striking bright red color, and it finishes nicely. Hard and strong, it's supposed to age to a deep brown color, but the finish will slow that down.
Price: $25.00By clicking on "Order Now," buyer agrees to these terms.

Apricot Wood Consecrated Oil Vial

These LDS Consecrated Oil Keyring Vials are made from gold or chrome-plated parts and Apricot wood. A unique, handmade, a perfect gift for any Elder, whether dad for Fathers Day, brother for Mission Farewell, or a son for his ordination to the priesthood. Inside is a glass vial that can just as easily hold perfume or essential oils.

Apricot wood is a favorite for woodturning - color varies from a vivid yellow-gold to orange to deep brown, often with contrasting and swirling grain. Random apricot trivia: Among American tank-driving soldiers, apricots are taboo, by superstition. Tankers will not eat apricots, allow apricots onto their vehicles, and often will not even say the word "apricot". This superstition stems from Sherman tank breakdowns purportedly happening in the presence of cans of apricots.
Price: $25.00
By clicking on "Order Now," buyer agrees to these terms.

Ambrosia Maple and Chrome - LDS Consecrated Oil Vial

These LDS Consecrated Oil Keyring Vials are made from chrome-plated parts and Ambrosia Maple. A unique, handmade, a perfect gift for any Elder, whether dad for Fathers Day, brother for Mission Farewell, or a son for his ordination to the priesthood. Inside is a glass vial that can just as easily hold perfume or essential oils.

Ambrosia Maple is one of my favorite woods for turning. Ambrosia refers to the fungus that causes the black streaks. It's introduced by beetles that cary the spores with them. They burrow in to dead maple trees, lay eggs, and leave, and the spores they leave behind begin to break down the walls of the hole into food the larvae can eat. When they grow up and leave, they take the spores with them. The fungus only exists in symbiosis with the beetles, and the beetles can't live without the fungus. Cool stuff. The resulting staining pattern in the maple is distinct, dramatic, and beautiful.

Price: $25.00
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Bar Board - Wood Cutting Board with Tomato Recess

These "Bar Board" cutting boards are the same size as the popular "Pampered Chef" brand bar board, 6"x8". They make the perfect gift for the cook in your life - sized for convenience of use and storage, they're perfect for every-day small cutting jobs, but unlike plastic cutting boards, these are solid hardwood, with the safety and elegance that comes with that. Research has shown that plastic cutting boards, though easily cleaned when new, become harbors for bacteria once they develop scarring, while wood cutting boards draw the bacteria inside where it dies, and stay safe for years, despite grooves and scarring.

In addition to being preferable from a safety standpoint, these cutting boards are just plain awesome.

Choose from domestic or exotic woods for a single-piece board (yellowheart and purpleheart are shown here) or from a hodge-podge of contrasting colors laminated to give a striking look like those boards above.

Care is simple - hand-wash with warm soapy water and rinse. Oil with mineral oil monthly. Cut in the direction of the wood grain. Sand away stains if they develop. Follow these instructions and you'll have a beautiful cutting board for years. Everyone always wants to give a gift that "keeps on giving" - with one of these, that is really true.By clicking on "Order Now," buyer agrees to these terms.

African Mahogany and Gold Consecrated Oil Vial

These LDS Consecrated Oil Keyring Vials are made from 10k Gold-plated parts and African Mahogany. They're unique, handmade, a perfect gift for any Elder, whether dad for Fathers Day, brother for Mission Farewell, or a son for his ordination to the priesthood.

African Mahogany is different from your usual mahogany used in furniture and fine woodworking in the US. It's from a tree in the mahogany family called Khaya, and is an exotic and imported hardwood that is figured "broken grained". It is characterized by vertical bonds of varying luster and vessel markings in which the ribbon effect is intermittent. The heartwood varies from light to deep reddish-brown. Like American Mahogany, this timber is very durable and stable. Khaya species tend to be lighter in color, generally more of a salmon/pink in tint, but the color and density are affected by the specific conditions in the area of growth, so there are no absolutes It had a hayday in drum making, but was too expensive for that to continue.

Price: $25.00
By clicking on "Order Now," buyer agrees to these terms.

Padauk and Chrome Consecrated Oil Vial

This LDS Consecrated Oil Keyring Vial is made from chrome-plated parts and Padauk. They're unique, handmade, a perfect gift for any Elder, whether dad for Fathers Day, brother for Mission Farewell, or a son for his ordination to the priesthood.

I love turning wood with Padauk, and this photo is a good example why - the wood is violently red-orange when cut, and it finished up so shiny. It has a lot of character. Padauk is a large tree reaching diameters as large as 45". Heights of 130' are not uncommon. Heartwood varies from yellow to brick red, but most commonly seen in a dark red-orange. Incidentally, some Padauk's are also used for an herbal medicine for treating skin parasites or fungal infection. Call me crazy, but I DON'T think it will influence the efficacy of the oil you keep in the vial though.

Price: $25.00
By clicking on "Order Now," buyer agrees to these terms.

Blackwood and Chrome Consecrated Oil Vial

This Consecrated Oil Vial is hand-turned from African Blackwood whith durable chrome parts. The glass vial inside can be used for consecrated oil, perfume or cologne, or essential oils, or any other liquid you choose. The laniard is black silk, but the vial can just as easily be slipped onto a keyring. All of my work is custom made, so be sure to pick which shape you want - straight, hourglass, bead and cove, or whatever else you can think up.

Blackwood is a small tree attaining a height of 45', trunk diameter rarely more than 14". Heartwood is dark brown with predominant black lines which give an almost black appearance. Sapwood is pale

yellow, giving pleasant contrast. The grain may be straight or irregular, extremely fine texture. Dries slowly with a slight tendancy to check. Used extensively for woodwind instruments, giving one of the best tones. Turns well, often used for carving. Capable of an excellent finish.

Price: $25.00
By clicking on "Order Now," buyer agrees to these terms.