Cherry darning ball

My friend Erin at Red Cottage Fiber Studio sent me some photos of a well used (and slightly misused) darning ball for mending fabric that she found at a yard sale. Looks like it was made from a piece of oak.

I had a chunk of cherry from their property sitting in my shop, so I decided to make one of similar size and shape as a gift.

The process:

Mill the chunk of wood down into square stock on the bandsaw

Rough the square stock round with a roughing gouge

Remove the excess around the handle with a bedan

Shape ball and handle with a large spindle gouge

Shape the ball to handle transition with the spindle gouge

Sand with 80 – 120 – 220 – 400

Cut the bands on the handle with a skew, then burn them in with guitar wire

Finish with Tried and True Original