Honey Dipper on a Wood Lathe

I've been working on my wood lathe skills, and i love to eat honey, so i decided to make a honey dipper. According to reputable sources, honey dippers are the most effective tool for transferring honey from jar to food item.

I made it at TechShop

TechShop is awesome - if there's one in your area, you should check it out.

techshop.ws

Materials
- piece of oak wood, bought at Home Depot
- sand paper
- mineral oil and a rag for applying

Equipment (all of this can be found at TechShop)
- wood lathe
- table saw
- band saw
- articulated miter saw
- belt sander

I did a quick google search of honey dippers, found some that I liked the look of, and tried my best to draw out a basic design sized to my piece of wood.

The wood I used for this honey dipper was actually scrap from a previous lathe project. I'll show how I got it prepped for the lathe in the next step.

Instead of putting a square piece of wood on the lathe and having to chisel off the corners, it's a good idea to use a table saw to cut it down to an octagon. Read the captions on the pictures for instructions on how to do this without any measuring (to see the captions on the smaller images you'll have to click on the pictures first).

The actual process of turning and sanding a piece on the lathe is probably best demonstrated through video. Take a look at this video guide to see a honey dipper made by someone who actually knows what they're doing.

Here is a basic overview of how I went about turning my honey dipper.

1) secure wood on lathe, tape up design as a guide
2) experiment with different chisels, blunder towards a dipper-like shape
3) mark out grooves with a pencil
3) try to make grooves on the head of the dipper narrow and square, realize I don't have a small enough tool, settle for wider rounded grooves
4) turn lathe to reverse, sand using 100, 150, and 220 grit sand paper
5) remove honey dipper from lathe, cut off extra material on both ends using band saw
6) sand down cut ends using belt sander
7) hand sand spots that still look a little rough, especially in the grooves on the head

I finished my honey dipper by rubbing it down with mineral oil.

According to the internet, pharmaceutical mineral oil (for use as a laxative) works pretty much the same as more expensive butcher block oil.

With the oil applied, the honey dipper had a nice finished look.

Now I'm ready to dip honey like a pro.

Give me a shout in the comments if you have any hot tips on wood turning - I'm just getting started and would love some advice.

Thanks for reading!