Custom Beer Tapper Handle

My daughter and I made a very cool beer tapper handle for her boyfriend's Kegerator this Christmas. She wanted to turn a unique handle on the lathe. Having never used a lathe before, I assisted her as much as I could, but left the actual shaping up to her.

Of all the tools in my shop, the use of a lathe is more of an "art" and less of a "craft".  It therefore appealed more to her artistic nature.

My daughter wanted the stock for the handle to have some sort of pattern to it. We decided on a checkerboard in two contrasting colors. We used Wenge and Maple.

I started with stacking ½" slices of wood, then ripped them ½" wide lengthwise. Once we squared the glued up block, I sliced ½" pieces across the stack on the band saw. It was like slicing a loaf of bread. Checkerboard bread.

Every other slice was rotated 180 degrees and the whole stack was glued up for the final blank.

The lathe work was conventional, but slow moving as novices were at work.

 The form is starting to take shape. Notice the intersesting patterns that emerge from the checkerboard as it is cut on a curve.

The piece looks quite different when it's spinning.

The almost finished shape proved to be quite pleasing to us.