Make an Egg Candlestick (or Two)

"It’s springtime, the season when eggs traditionally get their moment of glory". So time to show you how to make some egg candlesticks, spring candlestick, easter candlestick or call it whatever you want. Let's start.

paper, a pencil, a ruler

a lathe

a log (I used birch)

a chisel

a drill

a razor saw, hand saw (Or if you have and don't compete in hand tools contest: bandsaw)

turning tools (I used roughing gouge, spindel gouge, parting too, sew chisel)

sanding paper (150-600 grid)

bee wax, fabrik

paint, household plastic, wood glue

a candel cup and screw

a candel

I normally make a drawing of the candlestick that I want to make to see how the model looks like.

Cut your log in the right size. The shortest candlestick was 15cm long and 9cm width the longest was 26cm long and 9cm width.

I like to drill the hole for the candle before I start to turn so I’m sure to get the hole in the middle of the candle. But this makes it difficult to later on mount the log in the lathe. I solved this problem by turning a plug which I put in the hole.

Mark the center on both ends. Make an incision with a chisel on one end for mounting the log in your lathe and drill a hole on the other side in the center of the log. The width of the hole depends on your candle cup.

Here I turned the shortest candlestick part by part. Many pictures..... but take your time to see the candlestick "grow"

1 Place the plug in your log and mount it in your lathe.

2 Start turning and turn at slow speed until your log is round. I started with a roughing gouge.

3 Mark the beginning and the end of the egg with parting tool.

4 Turn the upperpart "the candle holder" and measure the width and compare with the measurments on your drawing. I mostly used my spindel gouge.

5 Continue with the foot and the egg I both used my roughing gouge and spindel gouge.

6 When you are pleased with your profile sand your candlestick if necessary before you remove it from the lathe. Unfortunately I’m not a professional wood turner so I have to use sandpaper on my work. I started with 150 grid and ended with 600 grid.

7 Make a dowel with the parting tool. I wanted to stand the candlestick on a square piece of wood a made a dowel so I can mount the candlestick on the piece of wood.

8 Saw the square piece of wood. It measures 8 cm x 8 cm and is1 cm thick.

9 Sand the edges

10 Drill a hole and sand some more

11 Glue the candlestick on the square piece of wood with wood glue.

More about polishing and painting in step 12 and 13.

I turned the upper part first mostly using my spindle gouge.

When you are pleased with your profile sand your candlestick if necessary. Unfortunately I’m not a professional wood turner so I have to use sandpaper on my work. I started with 150 grid and ended with 600 grid.

I polished the parts of the candlestick which I didn’t want to paint. I used bee wax. After that I took the egg candlestick off the lathe and mounted an iron cup to prevent the candleholder from burning down.

Protect the part that you don’t want to paint by wrapping plastic around it. Spray several layers of paint on your candlestick and let it dry. Use gloves and dustmask to protect yourself.