Jack be nimble...candlesticks!

I had someone come cut some big limbs off my trees last week, to get everything healthy and ready for hurricane season. He and his crew seemed to think I was nuts when I told them I didn't want the wood hauled away. I didn't actually have a plan for it at that time, but knew I would figure something out.

Then my friend asked if I had any ideas for "rustic" candle holders for some big pillar candles. And, well, I had rustic for her!

So today, we cut slabs of juniper, sanded them smooth, and routed out a nice depression for the candles. And voila!

I used the table saw to cut the slabs - put the blade at the highest point and set the fence to the desired slab thickness, used a right angle guide in the slot to run the log through. Then rotated the log and repeated the task because it was too wide for the blade to get in one pass.

For routing the depressions we just drew an outline of the candles and freehand routed. Easier with a clear router base plate so we could see what we were doing!

Then we had an irregular chunk of log left so we thought it might be nice for skinnier candles. Basically we just sanded the ends and drilled the candle holes with a spade bit.

The only candles I had to work with were mismatched and in one case bent... but I think this could look nice with some slightly shorter candles in white or maybe sage green.

It was fun to play around in the shop with a friend and make something nice!  We are going to let the wood dry out a bit more and then seal it with spray poly to try to preserve the nice bark. It's very ... rustic!