Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
A few stoppers
John K Jordan
A gift bottle stoppers was suggested so I made a few to pick from. I had forgotten how easy they are to make. Olive, Purpleheart, B&W Ebony, African Blackwood, Maple.
I use Ruth Niles's stoppers. Some are the newer style with four o-rings. I like the looks of the brass one on the Olive.
I tried some end-grain stippling with a small carbide burr in a Dremel tool.
JKJ
Re: A few stoppers
David Smith
Very nice John. I especially like the texturing on the two darker stoppers.
Re: A few stoppers
Ed Davidson
I really like the textured tops as well...super nice!
Re: A few stoppers
roger lance
How do you like Ruth Niles' stoppers??.....I've heard they are very effective at sealing up a wine bottle.....better than other stoppers.
Very nice looking group!
Re: A few stoppers
Don Evans
I don't know about other stoppers, have only used the one's Ruth sells.
Her's are top notch so never have had a need to look anywhere else.
Don't see how others could be better in anyway.
YES, they plug the bottle and it doesn't leak when laying on its side.
Her stoppers also allow the bottle (wine) to go all the way up to the wood placed on top of the stopper making them look very nice when in use.
I've only used the original designed one's cone shaped.
Don
Re: A few stoppers
John K Jordan
>>>How do you like Ruth Niles' stoppers??.....I've heard they are very effective at sealing up a wine bottle.....better than other stoppers.
I've only used Ruth's and they are great. Both the original design and the new design seal well. The problem with the original design is different bottles have different diameter openings and some seal better than other. Ruth said some of the imported bottles have opening that the original design may have trouble sealing so she created the new stoppers, calling them "corks" to easily distinguish between them. I tried them on a number of different empty bottles and all sealed well. They generally seal with two o-rings in contact instead of one. I also like thee flat bottoms allowing them to sit nicely on the shelf.
There are other companies that sell the same design as Ruth's original. Some years ago there was a big stink when the machine shop she hired came out with their own line, a direct copy down to the thousandth of an inch. Then they patented the design! I think there are copies coming from China too. If you see other SS stoppers (some cheaper) that look like her original design you can form your own opinion.
I buy directly from Ruth. You can look up her web site and call - she answers the phone herself and will answer questions, any day of the week.
Ruth comes to some of the woodturning symposiums. She won't be at the TAW in TN the end of this month but Pete Keckle (Big Monk Lumber) will have her stoppers in his booth.
Thanks all for the compliments. These are the first stoppers I've turned in years. It was fun trying out design variations. The last time I made some (the first time) I made them all with this shape:
I used a threaded mandrel this time but this is the method I used the first time:
JKJ