Cherry & Resin French Rolling Pin

Cherry & Resin

French Rolling Pin

March 19, 2018

This entire project is an experiment. It ended with a spectacular cherry & resin french-style rolling pin, but the whole time I kept pushing the project to see what I could learn from it, not necessarily because I knew what I wanted in the end.

The whole thing started with an offcutt scrap of wood that I refused to throw out because it seemed like there had to be some use for it. This came from a huge cherry slab that I worked on last summer. When I cut this strip from the main slab, it seperated right at the knot and I started to wonder if I could put it back together somehow.

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Materials

Tools

I am really pleased with how this turned out, and my wife is even more so. We christened it by making pizza on the night that it was finally finished. That thick clear coat on top is very durable and so far nothing sticks to it. You could almost blow on it to clean everything off. It is so completely encased in a thick shell of resin that I wouldn’t be surprised it if was dishwasher safe at this point - but I’m not going to try it! Maybe I’ll make a test piece to put through the dishwasher for another experiment down the road.

The ONLY thing I am disappointed in is a result of my own negligence. When applying the top coats of resin, the second one dried perfectly flat and smooth, but there were a few cracks that prompted a third coat. That third and final coat ended up with a dimpled surface across the entire pin and it was driving me crazy trying to figure out what I had done wrong. It finally occurred to me that I went through the shop to get something while the surface was still wet and I must have stirred up some dust. I’m sure that the dust must have settled on the pin and each dimple in the hardened surface is a spot where dust fell. So the moral of the story is make sure you apply this stuff in a completely dust-free environment!