How to Turn a Wood Lace Bobbin

This simple tutorial will teach you how to turn wooden lace bobbins using a wood lathe and basic hand tools. This is a great Christmas present.

To make them you will need:
Hardwood pen blanks (3/4 inch square square by 5 inches)
Wood lathe
Lathe Tools- Especially a 1/2 inch gouge and skew

Take your pen blank and put it in wood lathe. You can cut these down from a larger block of hardwood to make your blanks inexpensively on a table saw.  If you have small gouges for pen tools that generally works better. Mike likes to use a 1/2 inch gouge to make the bobbin. Slowly start turning the blank.

You need a handle at the bottom and a bobbin at the top to hold the thread. It's easier to start with the handle and then move to the bobbin second. The wood tends to break on either side of the bobbin, especially at the far side where it's weakest.

Afterwards finish with oil and you're done. You can wrap them in ribbons to look cool. Generally a dozen is a good number to start with, but you can do 2 dozen if you're feeling ambitious.

Voila, one awesome Christmas gift.

Happy Holidays!

I like to finish my wood lathes with a little oil to help the thread come off smoothly. You can also use butcher's block oil as well. this will keep your thread from twisting when it comes off the bobbin. Pretty cool.

I wrap mine in fabric furoshiki's for a final elegant twist.