A commissioned piece I just finished, a maple rolling pin. This originally belonged to the customers mother. They wanted a tribute to her, and said she loved making cherry pies. I also carved her name on the other side.
There was a brand name on one end of the roller, Munising. With a little research on the internet, I discovered Munising Wood Products existed from 1917 - 1955 and was located in Munising, Michigan. They created kitchen wooden ware and advertised their products would last a lifetime.. The rolling pins were made from 'Selected Northern Rock Hard Maple'. Believe me when I say this was not an overstatement!
I started with a quick sketch and transferred that to the rolling pin. I used my Automach and Ryobi power carvers to rough in the design and finished with hand tools. Added color with thinned acrylic paints. The painted areas were sealed with a water based polyurethane, I fine sanded the other areas and applied a coat of Howard's Feed-N-Wax.