2 coat hooks from a small branch crotch - PEP BB roundwood.sand.hook

I made these coat hangers from cottonwood. The wood was delightfully easy to carve. I see more cottonwood and aspen wood carving in my future.

Sure, I added the flat backside pics, Jeremy! 😁

Yo guys, I'm hooked on roundwood.

I made these two little dudes out of the top of a tree that was leftover from another project at the skip event.

Sure thing! Check out how flat these backsides are

I started with extra maple chunks because this is my second attempt and I wanted to ensure that I had extra pieces in case twisting occurred while drying. I wanted to see which two pieces would make the best coat hooks. After many attempts, I found that using a planar with the vice yielded the best results compared to the draw knives.

Requirements for this BB:

  - Flat mounting surface
  - Round off sharp edges
  - Hand tools only

To get certified for this BB, post three pics.  

Attachment 1   - Your chunks of wood that you are starting with
Attachment 2   - Progress about half way through, with the hand tools you have decided to use for this
Attachment 3   - Final product

Using hand tools only and green wood, I was able to make two coat hooks at the Wheaton labs workshop with a flat mounting surface. After drying, I used a coffee stain.  
The photos below show the chunks of wood that I started with, the progress about halfway through with the hand tools I decided to use, and the final product.

I grabbed two chunks of wood from my brush pile. A piece of Apricot and a piece of Elm, both several years dry.
Overall a fun project and a nice way to spend my time :)

I cut off a birch (betulla) brunch.

I started by flattening the backing while sitting out at the bonfire.

I proceeded by peeling the bark and rounding the edges. I decided to do this inside the house so tomorrow I may get a new badge: sweep the floor

I'll let the hooks dry and then they'll be used in our new place we're moving to soon. Perfect housewarming gift for myself.

First time making these, glad to have been spurred on by this BB. As you can see I enjoy the results and have made more than two. Most of these are from the branches of a wild cherry I recently cut down and am trying to utilize in it's entirety. Looking for these is about the same as looking for wood for spoons, but these hooks can use the pieces too small to carve spoons with. I also played around with splitting off the bend on larger branches (just like with spoons) to yield a different style hook. After splitting along the pith to roughly flatten the back I'd put them in the vise on my bench and plane them if necessary. Some I sanded flat after drying. To dry flat I would clamp them to a piece of scrap, wrap the whole affair in packing paper and leave in a cardboard box to dry slowly. I'd leave the little branch hook with extra length until after drying since it was more likely to crack as it still has its heart. I'm going to keep making these and see how they do at market, lots of styles and finishing touches to experiment with. I've installed two around here so far, one just inside my pole barn and one on the side of the woodshed. A handy improvement that is, I always have to shed layers when splitting or stacking firewood no matter how cold it is. Now I'm not just throwing my coat on the ground or wherever.

Branches from a maple sapling that was growing in a bad spot. I will use more of it for the other coat hook project! For this I mostly used a woodcarving knife, but when my husband suggested a razor knife for making the back flat, I wished I used it for the whole thing!

green wood from ash tree