Recently, I received a phone call from a relative of neighbors I had in the home we moved from about 8 years ago! He remembered visiting my shop then and contacted me for a project he had in mind. They have a family tradition of wagering on the outcome of the horse racing at Del Mar. The winner is honored by having his name on the trophy and showing it off in their home. As you can see, they’ve run out of room and rather than start all over with a new plaque my challenge was to create a base that they’d be able to use for several generations. Here are the results:
The first logical step was to get the wood needed. I sent him some links from Woodworkers Source so he could see pictures of various woods which helped but in the end we met at Woodcraft here in Las Vegas so he could see the wood “up close and personal”. After checking what was available he chose this piece of Ebiara Gabon which I thought would be enough for the project based on my rough plans. It was just right, I had no usable piece left so had to plan my work carefully. It’s not like you can just go down to the big box store and buy more! This is a rare wood, one I’d never even heard of or used and it worked beautifully. After planing a square edge the rough layout began using chalk.
The size of the base was determined first by the size of the name plates and then by the amount of material I had available. As I was planning the work I realized that every side of the base would be visible at some time or another so it needed to be constructed in a way that end grain would be hidden. I chose mitered edges with full masonite splines for added strength. This was assembled with Old Brown Glue, my go to for any project where I don’t want any glue to show through the finish. It’s much easier to clean up than PVA glues.
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Splined Miter -
Clamped with packing tape and corner clamps
The next consideration was attaching the horse from their original trophy to the new base. Two things to consider here is that depending on which side of the base is shown you may be looking at the horse’s face, side, or rear end! For that reason, I attached the horse from the bottom with a wing nut so that not only can it be rotated it is also removable which makes shipping the trophy from one winner to the other easier. Since the bolt on the horse was short a larger hole was needed to allow clearance for the wing nut. The top is rabbeted so only a 1/4″ of end grain is visible on two edges.
The top was glued and clamped to the base. Having never worked with this species of wood I have no idea as to how much it may move due to humidity changes so left some space. I used a simple glue rub joint on the end grain of the top allow the wood to expand with the grain if humidity affects it — I don’t think it will though.
Making the bottom from one piece of wood presented the same problem of the edge vs. end grain and there wasn’t enough wood to do that anyway. The solution was making the bottom from 4 pieces using the same technique I use for picture frames. This way no matter how the trophy faces, the edge of the base always presents a nice, profiled piece of edge grain. It was rabbeted to accept the base and attached with screws from the bottom. There are silicone feet embedded in each corner to help anchor and protect whatever it’s sitting on.
For the finish I went with what I’ve been using for many years, Osmo 3043 which is a hard wax finish. Two coats applied 24 hours apart using abrasive nylon pads followed by a coat of Liberon Black Bison wax results in a glass smooth finish. They were finished separately and joined together once dry. I couldn’t resist taking this one picture of the project assembled and finished with the horse in place and texting it to my client! All in all, this was a good challenging project — just what I enjoy taking on. Glad he remembered me and my shop — thanks!
