Functional Wooden Water Canteen

[CarveOne]

A friend has tasked me with making a functional wooden water canteen for him and his daughter to use during equestrian events and horse rides in Florida. It started off as a western style and has evolved into something more appropriate to Florida. Today I cut the three inner rings which are 10.4" diameter and 3/4" thick red oak. The inner to outer diameter is 1/2". This seems kind of large, but the rides are all day. He wants a canteen that really draws attention. I hope this will do it for them.

The side panels are to be cut tomorrow if the weather allows. We could get 10" of snow tonight.

There are two 3/4" thick side panels with a 0.2" deep large pocket on the inside that matches the diameter of the inside of the rings plus eight 0.2" deep pockets, and three 3/4" thick rings with eight 1/8" diameter holes. The holes will have bamboo BBQ skewers through them that hold all five layers together with glue. A food safe glue and hot paraffin wax sealer coat will be used in assembling the canteen.

The bung hole parts are undetermined at this point, but will be determined by what I can easily get locally.

CarveOne

[JimmyD]

That's great looking. Keep us updated as you finish it, I'd love to see the result.

Jim

[CarveOne]

I will Jim.

Btw, the basket weave is my own, and the horse, rope, grass texture, and the palm tree are all in the clip art folder that came on the Aspire CD. My friend wanted the basket weave in particular.

CarveOne

[zeeway]

Very interesting project, C1. Reminds me of some old Wild West movies. Will this be carried in a saddle bag...or will there be a provision for a leather shoulder strap?

Angie

[mikeacg]

You come up with some cool projects! Thanks for sharing!

Mike

[CarveOne]

Very interesting project, C1. Reminds me of some old Wild West movies. Will this be carried in a saddle bag...or will there be a provision for a leather shoulder strap?

Angie

We're debating whether to use a leather strap from a tack shop or maybe a western style guitar strap. He is in a better location to find both of those options than I am and he can choose what he likes. He wants it to show up like nothing else anyone has at the events. He has two sides to show off. I wish I had a rotary axis to do some carvings around it as well.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

You come up with some cool projects! Thanks for sharing!

Mike

Thanks Mike, I'm not tied to any one type of thing. I like some of the ideas my friend comes up with. There will soon be a 24" diameter Ships Wheel clock project posted here which has already been designed using a 3D model from VA3D, and a future tack box for his horse's saddle and equipment.

Why would this type of box construction not work ok for something like a banjo, with carvings on the bottom and a skin on the top? There could be some integral sound holes in the backside carvings. It would use my CBG neck design and be modified for 5 strings. It could also be used for a three string round box CBG type instrument with a metal resonator. I have no idea what they would sound like, but they should be playable.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

These parts are shown right off of the machine and have not been sanded yet. The three inner rings, and one of the side plates have been cut. The only improvement I would consider making if I had to make another one is to lower the base level of the palm tree model by 0.05" or so to allow the horse's leg to stand higher above the tree trunk. This whole side was cut cross grain with a 1/16" tapered ball nose cutter from Precise Bits in one horizontal raster pass and no roughing pass with a larger bit. All of the models sit on a slightly dished model that allows the horse to be thickened a little for the bold look.

The side plate has had a 1/4" deep pocket cut on the back side and the eight 1/8" holes are drilled to 1.4" deep. I'll post a photo of that side tomorrow.


CarveOne

[Rick O.]

Nice project, looks great!

Back in the "old days", some canteens had small-diameter rope wrapped around the outside, with braided rope continuing up as a shoulder strap. The rope-wrap provided for shoulder-strap attachment without drilling holes in the canteen, and also acted as padding to protect the sides & bottom. On a project like yours, that would probably work best if the sides were slightly recessed. On those old tin canteens, a rope or fabric cover could be soaked in water, then evaporation would help cool the contents.

We're looking forward to seeing your finished project!

[CarveOne]

The rope model is inset from the outer edge by a small amount to allow manual rounding over of the edges a little after sanding. Not knowing much at about these canteens other than looking at images online I saw all types but not a lot else. I saw some recessed edges like you mentioned but just thought it was just a different style. It makes sense though. I'll relay the info to him and see what he thinks. Adding the rope strap sounds good. He was going to attach fittings to the canteen for attaching straps of some kind.

CarveOne

[martin54]

Looking good, as others have said you do some really interesting projects.
Rope strap is a nice idea but might not be so practical if your friend is going to be carrying this about a lot, the rope strap is likely to cut in at the shoulder.

[zeeway]

Regarding banjos, you could use some of the same strategies. Banjo rim makers (yes, that is a speciality) go to great lengths to align the grain to the circumference, claiming better sound. Some even use logs that are recovered from a river bottom, over 100 years old.

So, some banjo rims are made from bent laminations, and others are made from turnings that start as a twelve sided shape. I think machining a rim from a slice of a tree trunk could be interesting.

The resonator top surface of the banjo was originally a stretched animal skin - the cause of the disappearance of some neighborhood cats...but now it is usually Mylar. But perhaps a very thin wooden resonator would also work.

Angie

[scottp55]

NICE Project CarveOne
Although think this could turn out like your stall signs....Everybody will want One!!
When you get tho the hot paraffin finish, would you mind going into your process? I'm doing hot wax immersion on the buttons and love how impervious to moisture and Woolite they seem, But obviously can't "Deep Fry" larger pieces.
I've been following this and Like what you're doing
scott

[CarveOne]

Thanks for your info and interest in this project everyone,. Personally, I'm more in favor of two leather loops around the flat edges of the canteen (the ~3.75" side) which are used for attaching a leather strap for hanging on the horse in the usual fashion. Wear and tear on the canteen shouldn't be too much of a problem like it was in the old west because there are not very many deserts and steep rocky hills in south Florida to traverse every day. Right Angie?

The alignment holes in the inner rings should allow alternating the rings at 90 degrees if I want to do that, or keep the grain of all three rings running in the same direction. For more layers of rings the grain can be staggered at 45 degree angles. For just three layers like this project has I was thinking of the 90 degree version to give more character to the grain as seen outside the canteen and to possibly reduce warping or cracking.

I'll try it both ways and see how it looks before gluing begins. All four cut layers have been clamped together with bar clamps at each hole position since cutting them. The last part will be cut this morning.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

The final canteen part has been cut. The inner side and the outer side images are below. Now the fun begins. Um, maybe tomorrow Gonna let the part stabilize with a heavy weight on it while I take a break.

CarveOne