This year, I decided to try my hand at hand-making some Christmas gifts. One of the ideas I came up with was to use a wood and clear resin fusion, which I have experimented with in a couple past projects, to make a bottle opener. This one was fairly straightforward, once I worked out a design to use.

First, I cut the end off of an existing dollar-store bottle opener, to have a blank that I could encase in wood. Next, I put a piece of scrap hardwood in the vise and pinched it together at 3 points, snapping the wood and revealing interesting, jagged grains along the split. Wrapping one end of the piece in packaging tape and standing it upright creates a good mould to pour resin into; I mixed up a batch, poured it, and pushed the remaining wood end into the top, to create a single piece.

After shaping the piece down , I cut a slot in the top for the opener blank to slide into, and used two brass rivets, similar to those found in kitchen knives, to secure it in place. I am somehow missing a photo of the final, riveted piece; since I gave it away as a gift, it’s too late to get another photo!

In order to keep this post from being too incredibly brief; here are some photos of other wood+resin things I've tinkered with!

I don't have a ton to say about them, but enjoy the photos!