If You Liked It, Then You Shoulda Put a Ring on It

Although I hate to admit it sometimes, I like math. For some reason a few weeks ago, I got the crazy idea to build a mathematical woodworking project. That was the starting point for this insane fever dream. These are called Borromean rings, and I carved them all out of one solid piece of wood. Let me tell you, it was the hardest project I’ve ever done.

The math behind these is a story of its own, but it doesn’t translate very well to wood carving. The basic premise is that all three are interconnected but removing one of them will separate the other two as well. Besides, I’ve never done any wood carving before. After I cut out the blank with a scroll saw, it took me three hours just to draw the pattern on it because it was so confusing. I cut out the big sections with a saw, and then I punished myself for no good reason with hours and hours of running a Dremel. Dremels are not fun. They’re loud, hot, and unpredictable. A couple of times, the bit flew out of where I was carving and screwed up something else.

To top it all off, just before I was finished, I was carving something in the middle when the bit jumped out and broke one of the rings. I almost lost my mind, and I considered abandoning the entire project. The whole point was supposed to be that I wasn’t going to glue anything together. Eventually, though, I cut out a piece to fill the gap with and life went on. I felt like I was cheating, but really I was just mending an accident.

The lesson to be learned is that woodworking abides by Murphy’s Law: what can go wrong will go wrong. You have to be willing to learn from your mistakes and try to do better next time. Sometimes, like this, you can fudge the plans and repair what broke. Sometimes it means throwing out something you’ve been working hard on for a long time. Everyone hates to do that, but sometimes there’s nothing else to be done.

I hope this blog has helped you to see how much fun I’ve had woodworking, and maybe encouraged you to try it yourself someday. The only limit to what you can make is your own imagination: furniture, musical instruments, even toy cranes and Borromean rings.

🙂