Candy Cane Ornaments

November 9, 20169 yr

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My wife and I have a long tradition of making an ornament each year, first for our children and now for our grandchildren so that when they grow up and start their own homes, they have ornaments to start and remember past Christmases.
We normally alternate, she makes them one year and I make them the next. This is my year. Thinking of what to make, I remembered a project in Patrick Spielman’s The Router Handbook. It’s for how to make a wooden chain by routing the links, then breaking open every other link and gluing them back together. I thought I could use the same technique to make wooden candy canes (since I don’t have a CNC ).

First step was to draw up a full-sized drawing with all the critical dimensions. Since my flush-cutting bits are both ½” in diameter, that meant the middle gap should be ¾”. And I went from there.

Found some cherry and maple scraps in the wood stash and ripped and glued up the stock.

While the glue dried, I made the external template as shown in the book. Got started on the internal template.

Once the glue was dry, I cut off the first piece, a test piece, at 30 degrees.

I used the scrap, which is at the right thickness to make the rest of the internal template. In retrospect, I should have made both ends of the pieces square instead of leaving them at a miter. Mitered made them asymmetric that caused me minor nuisances later on.

Now that I have a blank, I drilled ½” holes in the center section on the drill press.

Then I used the flush cutter to trim to the template. So far, so good. Note there will be some "climb cutting" from some surfaces so that you are always going downhill with the grain.

I tried to use the flush cutter to cut the external profile. BAM, POW – due to short grain, the test pieces all split when I tried to trim the edges and ends.

Not wanting to give up, time for Plan B. I'm figuring Patrick was writing a router book, he was going to use a router. Abraham Maslow said in 1966, "I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."

Plan B was to mark the outside lines using a full-sized pattern template. Then trim comfortably close on the band saw. Now I wish I’d made the width (distance between long edges) a bit closer to the end dimension. Using the disk and belt sander, I sand to the line.

Now I can use the quarter-round bit to round-over both inside and outside corners. Once concept proven, I’ll flush cut and round over the insides (using the "inside template") prior to working on the outside.