Two Thousand Five Hundred Toothpicks ...

... and counting!

I am still going in order so I am on the last Saturday in December - except for that GIANT leap I make at the very bottom to almost present tense.

Shaker box making and finishing was in full swing:

Every time I took photos, I took photos of this baby - my favorite tray:

The "Wee Bitty Table":

Look how beautiful the walnut boxes are turning out!

Close up:

 

 

All the wee bitty ones posing:

One more photo:

And then, bottoms up! Everything gets turned over to finish the bottoms:

Even the babies! And it is in THIS position that you see MY contribution to Gary's boxes.

 

See the stamp?

 

 

 

OK, SEE IT NOW (in the photo below)?

 

He wouldn't get it for himself so I got it for him for his birthday. He says he is having problems holding it perfectly straight with even pressure for a matching, even burn - thus I got on the phone to Rockler and ordered a fancy schmancy one that goes in your drill press - put the box on the drill table, crank down on the handle and voilà!

 

Perfect even pressure every time!

 

So - guess what he is getting for his birthday this year?

I must say he is not doing such a bad job of it ...

And everything is moved in for some final finishing and 'sanding'.

 

 I put the sanding in quotes because a few years ago Gary had read for a light sand just use brown paper bags - thus we are 'brown bagging' them when they are inside (that was the 'Royal We' of course ...):

Again ... with my favorite tray:

Beautiful sewing boxes and two sets of Cherry, Maple and Walnut babies:

A close up of the triple babies:

Oh! And the title?

 

About two days before I took these photos, Gary walked in the house and said that he had just cut his fifth box of 250 toothpicks in half - thus making cute little wooden 'Toothpick Nails' - but I will just call them 'Toothpicks' - so now he has 500 ... 

 

He uses the toothpick to anchor the tops and bottoms onto the shaker box sides - the arrows are pointing to a couple of them in the photo below.

 

We figured - since we are SUCH MATH WIZARDS that came to 2500 toothpicks.

Dang!

That is A LOT OF TOOTHPICKS!

Since that was a few weeks ago - he has gone through another box ...

*** Fast forward to the first Sunday in 2013 ***

Gary had been working on a project for the Young Men's boys. He is the Young Men's President and wanted something that would motivate the boys to do thier Duty to God.

He hatched a plan ...

He made the boxes (size zero):

Got onto Amazon and ordered a grundle of Gerber and Buck knives - and then set about making these! He has done leather work in the past so this was no biggie for him:

That would be the 'Buck' knife - see (you might have to enlarge the photo):

And here would be the 'Gerber' knife:

Again with the 'Gerber' name being small but it is there - I promise:

Oddly, I never took the knife out to show you that underneath the knife - that fits ever so snugly in the top layer of leather it says 'To God' to complete the sentence - total brain freeze I guess.

 

He has given them all to the boys so I cannot even go find one and take a photo now!

His plan is that they will set it on their nightstand, dresser, somewhere and it will guilt them into doing their Duty to God ... probably will work!

 

 

NOW HE REMEMBERS! He kept one back for an example if he ever needs to make another:

Oh! And if that pile was zeros he was making the boys - what would you call the one here sitting on top of a zero?

I asked Gary since we had been saying it and he said "zero zero" since they would be by designation 00 - but I didn't know how to pronounce it - thus off investiGoogling I went.

 

 There was some confusion on the web also - so I am trusing Wikipedia and calling it a 'Double Aught' shaker box.

 

Now tell me -

 

 

IS THAT JUST THE CUTEST THING OR WHAT?

*** Added for clarification.

Gary mentioned to me that it was hard to see scale with the Double Aught Shaker Box and I was going to mention that I was going to do a complete post on the babies - but I will put the photos here so you can get a feel for how big they are:

Here are a size one, size zero and a size double aught shaker box:

How about this angle?  It is my favorite (still size one, size zero and size double aught):

Ahhh - this - except for the 'Giant Leap Forward' for Gary's clever set - I am now OFFICIALLY finished with Week 5 of December 2012.

 

 Since there were six weeks in December (the way I COUNT THEM) I have a few more posts - then on to 2013!