Branch buttons

[Ryan Mooney]

Just rounds off of a branch cut with a razor saw and drilled. Real quick and simple to make and given that they go for $1.50 and up each if you buy the darn things are a decent ROI on your time. The boss wanted some for one of her projects, this isn't quite a lifetime supply but close. Made about 100 in a bit over an afternoon.

Front to back: rosemary (nicer than expected cut dry), basswood (cut green) and lilac (imho the nicest in person cut green).

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Apologies to Mr Weaver for the egregious display of end grain

[Judson Green]

That's pretty cool! And at a buck fifty it's like minting your own money.

Thanks for sharing, Ryan

[Sean Hughto]

How do you keep them from cracking as they dry? And are they really strong enough for much use - seems like the short grain would make them susceptible to snapping in half. Sure are pretty though.

[Ryan Mooney]

How do you keep them from cracking as they dry? And are they really strong enough for much use - seems like the short grain would make them susceptible to snapping in half. Sure are pretty though.

Yeah I thought both of those things would be true when I first saw them but evidence of the pieces in hand confutes my original negative assumptions.

Out of the 60 or so that I cut green not a single one cracked while drying. The ones I cut dry had some pre-existing cracks but didn't get any worse once cut (the initial rejects were the only rejects for that reason - I messed up a few holes, etc.. on some others). I don't have a good explanation for this but my hypothesis is that the piece of wood is small enough that it didn't have enough movement or could absorb the movement well enough that it wasn't a problem. I also drilled the holes green which I thought might help - but there is no sign of any of them being oval after drying so I'm unconvinced it made a significant difference.

As far as strength it varies a bit depending on the wood but seems to be substantially better than anticipated. The Rosemary ones aren't nearly as strong, I can snap the wider of those in half with some effort (and they're rough enough that they'd mostly work for decorative anyway), the smaller around ones its harder to get enough leverage to break them. The lilac on the other hand - you could snap them if you put them in a vise and smacked them with a hammer.. but that would break most other buttons as well. They seem to be more than adequately strong for the designed purpose. There is also a thickness vs diameter scale that seems to be about right - some I cut a bit thicker and some thinner. On a small round you can actually go pretty thin before it gets to weak, on a larger one you need to leave it a smidge thicker.

[Sean Hughto]

I have some plum branches I've used to make some pulls and such, and I have to say it is one of the strongest woods I've ever used - even thin pieces are hard to break. You might look for some fruit trees - often pretty colors too.

[Ryan Mooney]

I have some plum branches I've used to make some pulls and such, and I have to say it is one of the strongest woods I've ever used - even thin pieces are hard to break. You might look for some fruit trees - often pretty colors too.

Yeah any harder hardwood seems like it would work well for this. That's one of the things I liked about this project it took stuff to small to be really useful for much else (literally yard waste) and made something kind of cool out of it.

When I was looking around before I made these I saw some that were made from redbud branches that were quite nice. Plum is really nice wood, I've gotten a few trimmings here and there and it does have some fantastic figure.

[Tom Vanzant]

Have you tried persimmon? Do you add a finish when dry?

[Ryan Mooney]

Have you tried persimmon? Do you add a finish when dry?

These are the only ones I've ever made (so far) so not yet - there appear to be some made from persimmon for sale on etsy which look pretty nice.

For all of these I finished them once they were dry. I did minimal sanding on them (the lilac wasn't sanded at all, I just beveled the edge with my pocketknife). The rosemary got two coats of rattle can lacquer which worked fairly well for wood with a lot of natural character. The ?mystery? (basswood we thing) tree I just used two coats of walnut oil which ended up a bit "blah" imho but worked fairly well for a natural look. The Lilac I dipped in a mix of BLO+Turnpentine then let dry three weeks and then topped it with a dip coat of waterlox; personally I like these the best but that's somewhat subjective and possibly as much or more a factor of the wood as anything.