Ingredients (Makes One Coaster)
- One piece of Bolivian rosewood, ¼" thick by about 4" long by about 2½" wide, long edges straight and parallel. If you find a piece with the grain running at a slight angle, you can follow that angle rather that using the precise dimensions given below. Remember that I got here by cutting a flawed section out of a piece 3" wide, following the angle of the flaw.
- One piece of curly maple, ¼" thick by a little over 4" long by about 1" wide, long edges straight and parallel. Maybe, as I did, you can find a piece with the curl at an angle that matches the angle of the cut in the rosewood.
- Two pieces of curly maple, ¼" thick by about 4" long by ¼" (or more) wide, at least one long edge straight (the other can be trimmed after the glue-up).
- General Finishes Enduro-Var urethane (or similar) to finish.
- 1/16" thick pressure sensitive cork sheet (or dots, or similar) for underside.
Instructions
Referring to the photograph, the pieces of wood are numbered 1 to 5 from left to right. Odd numbers are curly maple, even numbers are Bolivian rosewood (you can, of course, choose other species).
- Cut the rosewood, on a slight diagonal, into unequal or equal pieces, your choice. I was cutting out a flaw from a 3" wide piece so I followed the location and angle of the flaw. If you want to copy what I ended up with, piece 2 is 1 1/8" wide at the top and 1 9/16" wide at the bottom and piece 4 is 1¼" wide at the top and 13/16" wide at the bottom. Note that adding the top dimensions (1 1/8 + 1¼) and the bottom dimensions (1 9/16 + 13/16) comes to 2 3/8" in both cases, so starting with a piece 2½" wide allows for 1/8" to be lost in the saw kerf.
- Prepare the maple pieces as described in Ingredients and glue everything up as in the photograph.
- Sand flat and smooth.
- If necessary, trim to the desired width, keeping pieces 1 and 5 the same. If you're following these instructions exactly, you'll end up with 3 7/8". Trim the length to produce a square.
- With a router fitted with a chamfer/follower bit, bevel the top edge according to your preference. Hand sand all edges if necessary.
- Apply three coats of urethane finish, following the instructions on the can.
- Cut a piece of cork sheet to size, allowing for a margin of about 1/8" all the way around, and apply to the bottom of the coaster.
