The newly minted lawyer Grandson works for a federal judge in Tyler these days, but will change to a Houston federal judge this August. He and a coworker want to present the Tyler judge with the gift of a gavel. The bad news is that the GS is somewhat of a newby to wood turning, and his buddy wouldn’t know a lathe from a box blade. The good news is that I have a nice Jet Lathe, tools and knowledge, so I can guide them. The wood needed (walnut) is on order, and I’ve been practicing with white oak. Once I have the pattern decided on, I’ll make a ‘final’ version and have that on hand to help the young guys.


The white oak gavel I did yesterday. Sort of winged it so we could decide on the size of the gavel head. From the left, the mallet heads are 1 1/2” diameter, my 2” Bodark hammer for wood chisel work, and the 3” Bodark mallet for paint can tops hammering. The boys chose to go with the 2” diameter gavel head, so I’ll do one this afternoon and work up a storyboard.

And I ordered some Bloodwood to make a gavel to be able to give to the GS (or leave it to the GS) when he reaches his goal of judgehood. He is a strong conservative, for the record.

is it an optical illusion or is the handle not centered in the head? looks slight offset to one end a little bit

It is off just a tiny bit. Less than 1/8”. Like I said, I winged it on that first one. The next test gavel will look a lot better (or you’ll never see it).

This is better. I actually measured things, and have a pattern. The head is from a 2” diameter 3 1/2” long blank. Should look good in walnut if the boys can do the turning.

That's really nice 603, congrats! Good luck with the boys, sounds like an a great project and gift.

That looks great sir!

Here’s the finished gavel. I wanted a pic of handle and the thing the judge hammers on, but this is all I got. I think the judge will like this gift from his guys.
Other than the finish, this was entirely the work of the neophyte turners.

Nice work! I never thought of turning a gavel. Ill have to try one.

Pretty cool