Pin of The Week: Viking Beer Mug

Pin of the Week
This week on Pinterest I saw a pretty cool project I am interested in taking on at some point. How would you like a handcrafted viking-style beer mug?

The beer mug shown in the pictures was made from a log and only hand tools. If you are interested in making this be sure to read the full article and go to the Instructables article as well. The full step-by-step directions will clear up a lot of questions you might have. My biggest apprehension was whether this could be made food-safe since many resins are not safe for food contact and in some areas their availability can be scarce. The creator of the original article used a material called Propilis which was described as "produced by bees, this all natural product is the perfect sealant. Its hard at room temperature, meltable, veeeeeeeery stick, eatable, antibacterial & disinfectant."  Because it was a natural product is sounded good to me but I decided to do some more research on this topic. Apparently it has been used medicinally since 350 BC and has been used to canker sores, minor burns and even to treat mouth and throat cancer, which is impressive. However, because it is a product typically harvested from beehives it should not be consumed by people who are allergic to bees. Also it is believed to possibly worsen asthma and can slow blood clotting.

Anyway, enough about propilis. These mugs would be cool to make even if they are just made to be decorations.

Scrap Wood Projects

Over the past couple days I have been working on a new project for The Wood Goods, a book. While I probably should be focusing my efforts in writing blog posts and creating more inventory for the store I have decided I would rather spend some time writing a book complete with plans and pictures that details how to make a number of projects from scrap wood. Right now I have a list of 58 projects that I am thinking about detailing for this book though that number may increase or decrease as the writing progresses.

To help make this book possible I have started an Indiegogo Campaign. If you want to help make this book possible, check out the link below.

Post by The Wood Goods.

Pin of the Week: Wood Block Robot

Pin of the Week

From this point on, each week I am going to share my favorite pin from Pinterest with all of you. In most cases this will be posted on Sundays, but that may change depending on holidays.

This week I found a great project to make with scrap pieces from other projects. Unfortunately, the link from the pin is no longer active so I can't give you the complete instructions on how to make one of these until I go through this and make a couple myself. Just looking at the picture should be enough for many of you to figure out how to make these. 

I love this project. This would be great to put on a shelf or to as a child's toy and all it takes is a little bit of rope, various size wood blocks, some glue, a drill and a saw.

I hope to go through my scrap pile soon and make a couple of these to put in the etsy shop.

Make Money From The Wood Goods

Over the past couple days I have spent a significant amount of time looking for ways so all of you can make some money from The Wood Goods.

I started by browsing through a dozen or so websites that offer software to set up affiliate programs but that search was unsuccessful. Most of them that seemed like a good idea were misleading in someway. One of them only worked if you are selling digital products while another required a verification document that simple security software would not allow to run on my computer because their form was not secure enough.

So eventually I came back to a simple referral program through ReferralCandy which actually seems to be better than I initially thought. My first impression was that I could only give coupons as rewards but when I finally signed up I found I could offer cash rewards. So once I test the programming (hopefully everything is tracked properly) I will be offering $5 paid via Paypal for everyone referral that spends $35 or more at TheWoodGoods.com.  Plus when you refer your friend you will be giving them 10% off their purchase.

Some things might change with this program as we move forward but the $5 reward and 10% off will remain the minimums until at least December 31, 2015. There are times where I might run promotions to give a higher reward or give first time customers a bigger percentage off their order.

I hope this news is as exciting for you as it is for me. As long as everything tests fine, the program will be launched early next week.

($5 reward when your friend spends $35 or more)

How to Make a Cube Puzzle

Anyone interested in learning how to make a simple wood cube puzzle? I recently posted a video on Garfum.com that shows exactly how to make one of these puzzles. All you really need to make one of these is a wood cube, a band saw, some masking tape, sandpaper and wood finish of your choice.

First cut a wavy line through the block. The complexity of the cut will depend on personal preference, density of the wood and tension in your band saw blade. Don't try to make the saw do something it is not capable of.

Once through the block tape it back together and rotate the cube and repeat the first step so you are cutting through a side that has not been cut. The block only needs three cuts total cuts.

After the third cut, remove the tape, then sand and apply a finish to the pieces.

I hope these direction are clear but if not you can see exactly what I mean by following the link below:

Garfum Video | Video Contest Online | Cash Prizes Online | garfum.com

If you do take the time to view the link, if you could also sign up for the site and submit a vote for the video I would greatly appreciate that. Garfum hosts a monthly contest where the 10 videos with the highest voted score are awarded a cash prize. The top video also qualifies for the championship competition for the chance to win up to $25,000.



I will be posting more videos in the near future.

End-Grain Cutting Board Giveaway

There are 10 days remaining in The Wood Goods End-grain Cutting Board Giveaway! If you are interested in your chance at a free cutting board head over to our Facebook Page and sign up via the simple entry form. There are currently 340 entries so you have a fairly decent shot at this cutting board valued at $60.

The particular cutting board you will receive will be slightly different from the one pictured but will also be made from cherry, maple and walnut and be finished with multiple coats of mineral oil.
The board measures 13" x 9" and is approximately 7/8" thick.

As you may know end-grain cutting boards are known to be the best to keep your knives sharper for a longer amount of time. It is the easiest on your knife because the blade will slip between the grains of the wood. End-grain boards also have a self-healing property because of this wood orientation where narrow cuts and marks may naturally close up over time.

If this sounds like something that interests you, don't forget to enter by 2/22/15 at 12 PM EST.

Customized 6-Pack Carrier Giveaway

The Wood Goods is giving away a customized 6-pack carrier. From now until 10:00 AM on January 25th enter on the Facebook Page for your chance to win. The winner will receive a customized 6-pack carrier similar to the one pictured above. It will be stained and include a wood-burned monogram with the winner's last name or if the winner chooses they can get a simple, natural wood bottle carrier with no customization.

As you can see in the picture, the bottle carrier construction includes dividers to keep the bottles from clanging against each other and a bottle opener mounted on the same side as the monogram.

If this promotion goes well I will try run more on at least a monthly basis, so share this with your friends and good luck to everyone.

Finally, everyone who enters this sweepstakes will receive a promo code good for 10% off their order from The Wood Goods store.

Woodburning and More!

Today I listed a number of new items to the shop. Most of them involve woodburning like the balancing bottle holder pictured above. In addition the the Eiffel Tower, there is a lighthouse, a fish about to eat a dragonfly and a couple kissing beneath an umbrella. Other woodburned items include 5 wall hangings of various sizes made from repurposed red cedar shingles. They all were created to go along with a winter and Valentines day related theme.

I also listed two business card holders. One is made from oak and the other is made with mahogany sandwiched over a piece of oak. They both can hold between 10-15 business cards, but unfortuntely they only work with smaller cards because I didn't realize the size variance when I was designing them. 

There will be many more woodburned items listed over the coming months and many office and home related products as well as some games. I look forward to improving my wood burning skills and working on more complicated designs. It is a great wood craft for the winter months when you can't always get into the shop.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has enjoyed their holidays. Clearly I have not been very productive as far as web content goes, but I have been productive in the shop. Over the past month I have enjoyed the best month in terms of sales since The Wood Goods started and that has given me hope looking forward that The Wood Goods will continue to grow in the future. In December I spent just $1 a day on advertising and I completed over 40 orders, many of which were custom orders. 

I plan to reinvest much of that revenue on some new tools and eventually into more advertising to try to continue to grow sales. I also feel I need to apologize to anyone who may have come here over the past three months because I failed to follow through with my promise of updating this site with regular content. With the New Year I plan to change that and make regular updates to the blog.  

In the coming days I will be listing a number of new products that I have been working on over the past couple weeks. These are all mostly completed and just need to be photographed to list the items. Here are couple of the items look forward to:

1. wood-burned signs/wall hangings

2. balancing bottle holders with wood-burned accents

3. wooden business card holders

4. wall-mounted bottle openers with magnetic catches

5. scroll saw whales

I also have a number of other things that I have been working on that should be ready in the near future and I plan to add things frequently throughout the year. There will be a number of Valentine's Day related items coming soon.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy New Year.