You don’t need a rolling pin every day. And you certainly don’t need a large rolling pin for most of your work. So here’s a small easily turned rolling pin that’s about 12 inches long an inch and a half in diameter that will serve for 80 or 90% of your daily needs. This is super easy to make and in my case I used wood from the fire pile.

Tools and Materials

If you followed any of my previous blogs especially with regard to turning you’ll notice that I try to use recycled up cycled wood and especially wood from the fire pile. One it’s way cheaper than going to the store and buying a billet there’s two inches by two inches by 12 inches. That would run about $30 where I can go out to the woodpile and find a branch or a chunk that with a little bit of prep does exactly what I want it to do. So for this the only thing you need of course besides the lathe and lathe tools is a piece of wood that’s about two inches in diameter and 12 to 13 inches long. The wood does need to be dense and close grain so be sure when you choose it you choose a wood like that.

Center Layout

So once you have a turning blank or billet that you may have been able to create from a branch by squaring the ends the knocking off some of the big parts you need to find a center. That’s easily done with the center finder. These are really cheap and easily found on Amazon. Mark your center and then use it all to put a small divot. This will be where your drive center goes and your live center.

Roughing

With your centers marked chuck your part of the lathe. Make sure it spins well then grab a roughing gouge and turn that square round.

Detailing

Once you have a nice round piece go ahead and grab your fingernail gouge and what you’re going to do is put a knob on each end. There’s no specific way to do this and the actual profile is totally up to you it could be bell shaped it could be round or anything else you care to have. Just work it so that it will be easy to handle.

Sanding

Your next step is sanding. Sanding for this rolling pin is extremely important. You’ll need to run through the grits fully and completely. And when you get to 320 grit you will need to apply water and allow it to dry on all surfaces of the rolling pin. This will raise the grain. Once it’s dry sand it off and repeat the process at least three more times. Then move on to 600 grit and follow the same process. At the end of it you’ll have an ultra smooth finish on your rolling pin.

Finishing

Finishing a roller pen is super easy. All you need to do is apply three or four coats of a good food safe mineral oil let it soak in for about an hour between each application and then wipe off the excess at the end

Project Complete

Well I have to say for me this was an easy fast project and I think it would be the same for you. This is a project that I started because my son is getting into baking and wanted something smaller and because of the small amounts that he’s working with. I think this is absolutely perfect for what he’s doing. And I think it would be perfect for you too.