Coat Hook

Made a coat hook for the mud room.

Not completely sold on it, but it was a quick project and I got to try a new skill - cutting an oval.

Should be pretty easy right? We all did a variant of this in school. Make two fixed points, loop some string around them and trace with a pencil (pins and string method).

Looking around I found some finishing nails, a sharp pencil and some orange string. As you can see from the picture this didn’t quite turn out as planned. The knot in the orange string kept slipping so stuck duct tape over it, and as I traced with the pencil the string kept riding down until it caught in the lead.

How not to do it

After a while I did get a usable oval, although looking at the finished piece you can see its not quite right. Next time I’ll use different string and some larger nails.

Getting creative with a jigsaw

Test fitting with the hooks

After cutting the outline, I sanded, stained and varnished; with a light sanding by wire wool after the staining.

Finished Oval

Also painted the edge with some black paint, which you can just about see.