I turned a bunch of pens as Christmas gifts this year, and now I’m ready for some freestyle turning. Pens are great and all, but there’s only so much fun in turning the same shape over and over again. This week I turned a bottle opener out of African Padauk.

I cut some 3/4 square stock out of a 7/4 board of Padauk I had left over from the cutting boards I made. I put this into my Nova G3 chuck, with the tail stock pulled up. I turned the basic shape, and used calipers to gauge the thickness I wanted. I wanted the handle to be thin, but functional. Since I’m a beginner, I tend to leave pieces too thick (common for turners before they get comfortable turning on the lathe). There’s not really much to the design, but it felt great being able to turn whatever I wanted to, and not having to match up to a certain bearing.