Easy Wood Tool Review Part 3 - The Cane Project

Here we are in Part 3 of my Easy Wood Tool review.  If you saw my post last week, you read all about the incredible success I had turning a goblet out of "curly" maple with these amazing lathe tools.

This week though, I wanted to try something that required a little more precision than an impromptu wooden wine glass. 

This week's project is a custom cane. And, while this project may look easy (and in some respects it is), it does require near perfect tenons to be cut so that the handle, connectors, and rubber tip will fit properly.

So here we go with 2 of the same basic EWT lathe tools that I used last week, the Mini Easy Rougher and  The Mini Easy Finisher.  That's it this week.  I only used 2 tools to do the whole thing.  For wood I decided to use mahogany. 

The Mini Rougher has a square carbide head, with a stainless steel shaft. 

I used it to turn my 2 square pieces of wood into nice uniform round ones.  The carbide head made quick work out the mahogany.  It cut through it like butter, never missed a beat, and never showed even a slight sign of dulling.  I also used the roughers square head to make a clean precise tenon for the brass cane handle.  Tenons like this take a little skill when using traditional lathe tools, but I think that with the EWTs I could teach someone how to do this in about 5 minutes.  No exaggeration.

For the contoured part of the cane I used the Mini Finisher.  This tool has a round carbide tip which is also mounted on a stainless steel shaft.

The Mini Finisher was effortless to use.  It cut my contours without even taking a deep breath.  Once again, there was no noticeable dulling of the tool throughout the entire project.  I used the same tips on both the rougher and the finisher that I used on the goblet last week, and they performed flawlessly.

Here is a picture of part of the cane shaft showing some of the contours.

Notice how the brass coupler on the end of the shaft fits beautifully.  I had to use a coupler like this because my small lathe would not handle the full length of the cane unless I made it in 2 pieces that screwed together.

Although it is more work to make a 2 piece shaft like this, it has it's advantages.  For one thing, if you are an online seller, it makes it really cheap to ship. 

When it came to fitting the handle the EWTs continued to shine.  

The rubber tip was a piece of cake.

Here are a couple pictures of my completed cane.

So what will I do with it, now that it's finished?  This one will be a  Christmas gift to a very special friend of mine, who fell and broke his hip last year.  Hope he likes it.  By the way, in case you were wondering I used several coats of  lacquer to do the finish and then I polished it with some steel wool and paste wax.

So how do I rate the Mini Easy Wood Tools for doing projects like this cane?

Without any hesitation, I give it 5 pink hardhats out of 5 again.

These tools are pure perfection.

If you are interested in purchasing any of the EWT tools,  they are available through my good friends at Woodcraft.  Woodcraft is the same great company that is sending several thousand Christmas gifts to our overseas soldiers again this year.  Please give this generous company a call.