Celtic Knot French Rolling Pin, Part #1

I am a fan of “Cook Book†style instructions so if I miss any details, please let me know and I will try to flesh them out.

I thought it best to start with the jigs I used to prepare the turning blanks. Please note that I always over engineer everything and hardly ever see the obvious or the easy way to do something so if you see an easier way- go for it!

The first jig is one I made a while back, when I first started thinking about this project. I try to make jigs that have several uses. This one was also used to make the Cheese Knife Handles project. It could be used for any diagonal blank cut.

Special Diagonal Cutting Jig

Note: The two wing nuts on the left of center are raised with wooden standoffs. This was a change made after some of the images were taken. The raised wing nuts allow for easier adjustments of the angled fence

Sled has 2 movable fences to change the angle of the cut and position of the blank

Originally jig slid over the rip fence. Later modified to ride in miter slot for accurate repetitive cuts.

Disassembled Fences

Toggle clamp holds blank during cutting operation

Trim Jig

During the blank assembly, it is necessary to trim waste material before proceeding to the next step. This simple jig holds the blank for those cuts.

Although I used this method for trimming, I soon learned that it was faster to use the band saw. 

The trimming process will be addressed in another part.

In Part 2, we will cover the process of laying out the rolling pin blank.