Wooden Tankards and mugs

How the tankards and mugs are made:Each tankard is cut from a single board when possible. Keep in mind that all trees do not necessarily cooperate when it comes to this. Each tankard/mug has three coats of exterior finish on it, so the finish should last a lifetime. Now for those of you concerned about 'foodsafe' finishes, to put your mind at ease you can go here to read all about modern foodsafe finishes. I use a minimum of two coats of two part epoxy for the interior coating to keep the vessel 'leak proof'. When the interior finish has cured, it sets up kinda like the exterior of the old fiberglass corvettes. Which to those of you who are not Corvette buffs, it means it sets up really hard with very good "tack strength". That's why I can guarantee them to never leak. Again, if you are curious, or worried about the finish used on these tankards, then by all means read this. I also have the Material Data Safety sheet for both parts of the two part epoxy. The resin is here and the hardener is here. If you are the least bit paranoid or worried about the finish, just put a note in the comments section when you order requesting a 'food safe' finish. I will then put a minimum of 2 coats of a FDA food safe finish on the interior of the tankard. You should know that it will take an extra 3 days to add the food safe interior coatings. You can read the Material Data Safety Sheet on the food safe interior coating here. Personally I don't use the food safe finish on the tankards I use but my wife has pointed out that "not everyone is like you". Personally I think it would be a much better world if that wasn't the case.... but I digress.

I cut each ring separately on my lathe. After the rings are cut, I sand them flat. Then comes the semi-artistic part of the process. I set each ring so that it sits with the

growth rings going the opposite direction (vertically) of the ring below it. I then set each ring offset by 90 degrees with the ring below it. This combination of vertically opposite and 90 degree offset creates a pattern similar to a herringbone (my wife's term, not mine) pattern. An interesting thing about this combination is that as you rotate the mug, the light rings turn darker and the dark rings turn lighter every 90 degrees. The changing from dark to light is because the wood is going from end grain to face grain every 90 degrees. It takes more time to set the rings this way but the effect is pretty cool.

The rings are then glued and clamped together without the bottom on the tankard. Once dry, this gives me unhindered access to the inside of the tankard so I can sand the interior and be sure the edges of the rings are sanded smooth with the other rings, using a spindle sander.

Then I glue the bottom of the tankard to the rings to complete the rough tankard.

At this point I put the entire assembly back on the lathe to finish smoothing the exterior. Sometimes I have to use a roughing gouge, sometimes a bowl gouge but most of the time I only use sandpaper because I use a lot of care in the assembly of the rings. I sand the exterior of the tankard and make sure the top lip is made thinner (my wife's request). The sides start out at about 5/16" thick and end up somewhere around a quarter of an inch thick. This thickness makes for a much stronger tankard and gives the glue a lot more surface area to adhere to. The exception to this is the large sized tankards. I actually make the walls of this size thinner because visually it makes a better looking tankard (of course that's just my opinion, but I'm the one who

makes them). The sides on the large tankard are about 1/8" thick, more or less.

At this stage I apply a minimum of two coats of two part epoxy finish to the interior of the tankards over the course of two days. If the interior shows any spots that are not glossy after two coats, then I apply a third coat which takes another day. I use foam brushes to apply the epoxy to help eliminate any brush marks.

I then cut the handle using a bandsaw and sand it smooth with a spindle sander and a belt sander. I freehand cut the handles (which means I don't attempt to cut each handle exactly like the others) then I use the spindle sander to knock off the handles sharp edges. This gives the handle a more rustic look. If you look at the pictures you will see that the handle color always looks a little different than the tankard/mug body. The reason for this is that you are looking at the 'face grain' on the side of the handle and you are seeing some of the 'end grain' of the wood on the tankard/mug body.

The handle is then placed against a homemade sanding disk made of wood that is the same diameter as the tankard and covered with sandpaper. By holding the handle against this disk (attached to my drill press) it makes the curvature in the handle where it meets the tankard body closely match the curvature of the tankard. Again, this makes for a much stronger joint since the surface areas between the tankard body and handle match so closely. The handle is then glued/epoxied and clamped to the body. After removing the clamps if I see any hairline openings between the tankard body and the handle, I fill it with CA glue (Superglue) just for a little extra strength.

The type of glue I use to hold the actual rings together is a heavy duty, weatherproof, waterproof, exterior glue. I figure if this glue is designed to hold things together that

are left outside in the weather then there's probably not much you can do to damage the tankards.

The last step before applying the exterior finish is to close the hole in the bottom of the tankard that was used to hold it to the lathe. Note that not all tankards require this step. Some times when I'm feeling ambitious, I use my circle cutting jig on my bandsaw to cut the bottom ring for the vessels. When I do that, there is no hole to plug. To plug the holes, I use either half inch dowel rods or hole plugs. If I use dowels, I glue the dowel into the hole making sure it is flush with the top and bottom of the bottom disk. If I use plugs, then I have to put one plug on the top (interior) and one plug on the bottom. I really haven't decided if one way is better than the other. The hole plugs show 'face grain' which more closely matches the bottom ring grain and is more attractive in my opinion, but I the dowels have more surface area for the glue to adhere to. So bottom line is that your tankard may come with a plug or an dowel or nothing at all. The majority of the time I tend to use plugs because, overall, I think they just look better and are less noticeable.

If the tankard is made of maple, I sometimes leave small knots in the tankards for a little extra character. The knots are really dark and show up nicely against the really light maple. If I have left any knots in, then I cover them with CA glue to be sure they remain tight during the finishing process.

If I'm going to be applying the exterior finish to the tankards the following day I use an air compressor to blow off the tankard, inside and out.

Now it 's time for finishing. I only apply finishes first thing in the morning. This is because the shop has had all night for all the minute dust particles to settle. Which means a better finish with fewer dust mote.

I use a 'tack cloth' to remove any remaining dust the may still be attached to the unfinished exterior.

For the exterior, I use a minimum of three coats of finish and apply them with a foam brush. After each coat has dried, I lightly sand with 220 grit sandpaper to remove any dust nibs that have attached and then apply another coat of finish. After this coat has dried for 24 hours, I do the same thing over again. I use a minimum of three exterior coats, sometimes more. If after three coats, there are any spots that aren't showing high gloss, it's because that part of the wood has soaked up a lot more of the finish (most likely the end grain portion of the wood) . If that happens, I add additional finish coats until all spots are glossy.

Once the interior and exterior is finished then I have to put a coat of epoxy on the bottom of the tankards to keep them from absorbing any moisture they may come in contact with while sitting on a wet table. I apply the finish to the bottom and then wait 24 hours for it to set.

The last step. Once the last coat is dry and has set for 24 hours, I fill the tankard/mug with water and let it stand for at least 24 hours. After 24 hours with no leaks, it's time to dry it and put it up for sale. This step is for my peace of mind. I have never had a tankard leak and I have never been told of any tankard that has leaked.

The finishing process alone, takes seven days. First interior coat, wait 24 hours. Second interior coat, wait 24 hours. Attach handle to tankard, wait 24 hours. Apply first exterior coat, wait 24 hours. Apply second exterior coat, wait 24 hours. Apply third exterior coat if necessary, wait 24 hours. Apply coating to bottom, wait 24 hours. This seven days does not take into account the actual cutting and gluing time either. All told it takes about 9 days to make a tankard from start to finish. Please keep this in mind if you want me to make you

'something special'. You can't rush mother nature (or two part epoxy).

These mugs and tankards should last a lifetime (see the guarantee section), but there are a few caveats that should be adhered to. Common sense is closer than caveat, but I kinda like the sound of caveat, (I hate admitting I like anything French).

On a side note, if you like drinking beer from wooden tankards then you might like the idea of homebrew beer too. That site is one of my others and I tried to pretty much put everything you want to know about how to make your own beer there