How to Make a Cocktail Pick on the Woodturning Lathe

This is a great project to hone turning skills to carefully create the pointed tip of the cocktail pick. It takes sharp, sharp tools and patience to create the point without snapping the wood.

Supplies and Equipment

• ½" or ¾" hardwood dowel (note: be sure the wood you choose is food safe; not all hardwoods are)
• Wood oil
• Proxxon turning chisel set
• Proxxon MCRO Woodturning Lathe DB 250

Instructions

1. Use a center finder to mark the center of one end of the dowel. Use an awl to make a small divot at the center mark.
   
2. Load the unmarked end of the dowel into the lathe chuck.
3. Set tailstock so it is firmly seated in the center divot.
   
4. Use a bowl gouge to begin shaping the pick. Shape the decorative handle before completing the shaping of the pick end. 
   
5.  Continue shaping.
   
6. Continue shaping until the dowel at the pick end just falls away.
   

   
7. The pick is nearly finished with the handle end still attached to the dowel in the chuck. Now, sand the pick with progressively finer grits of sandpaper.
   
8. The last step is parting off the completed cocktail pick at the handle. Alternatively, the entire piece—still attached to the dowel—can be removed from the lathe and cut away with a saw.
9. Finish with a butcher block wood oil.
   

Carole