Henry's Natural Wood Blocks: A Tutorial

I'm waiting until after Christmas to post about most of the Christmas gifts I made this year. But I think I can post about these natural wood blocks I made for Henry without fearing that he may read the blog. They're all wrapped up for him now and I love how they turned out. I used a beeswax finish on them which makes them look quite nice I think.

Here is a quick run down on how I did them. I'm sure it's mostly obvious but there might be something in here that's useful for someone.

The only tools you will need are a handsaw and some sandpaper. I used my table saw and my drill apparatus for sanding because I already own them, definitely don't be put off by thinking you need those tools.

I started with 2 branches between 1 and 2 inches in diameter. One has a thick flaky bark that I think was from an evergreen and I'm a bit worried that the bark will continue to flake off. So I cut a block from the other branch that has a thinner less flaky bark. But it just didn't look as beautiful so I mostly used the flaky bark branch. I will have to report back if the flaky bark is a problem.

Edited to add: The flakey bark has not been a problem but a few flakes have come off even after all my sanding. And I'm sure a few more will come off in the future. But overall they're ok and I'm glad I used the more beautiful stuff.

Advice for choosing wood: Pay attention to the bark, the best stuff would be something with a tight bark that won't flake or peel off but that still has interesting bark. It is possible to get rid of most of the flakes of a flakey bark but not all and it will be more work in the sanding department.


I used my table saw like so to make the cylindrical blocks but a hand saw could definitely be used.
And I used my table saw like this to make the more rectangular pieces. If you don't have a table saw I can't really think of a good way to make this type of block.

Oh that's not really how I did it. That would be TOTALLY UNSAFE. That was to let you see better what was happening. This is how I did it, with the safety shield down and push stick.


Here are some blocks that I cut:


Next I put all the freshly cut blocks on a baking sheet and put in the oven at 200 F for an hour hoping to kill any bugs that could be in there. Be sure to do this step before sanding because the drying oven might make another layer of bark flake off and will cause more sap to seep out.

Next step is to do a bit of sanding. How much sanding you do and how "natural" you want them to look is up to you. I'm not a fan of sanding so I tried to do just enough to get rid of the most flakey outer layer of bark and to get rid of the blobs of sap.

Here is a picture of my sanding set up but even I could have handled sanding these by hand. I also own a hand held disc sander but find this easier for small pieces. You can buy sanding discs at Canadian Tire that fit into a regular drill. Warning: the sap from the wood completely wrecked my sanding disc.

And here is what they looked like after they were sanded.

Next step is finishing. I bought a big block (a little more than 1 lb) from the beekeeper at our local farmer's market for $8.50. And I used 1 oz beeswax and 4 oz olive oil. I ended up with 3/4 cup leftover beeswax polish so you don't use very much.

I melted them together in a double boiler.

And then let it cool down a bit so I could touch it. And it turned into one semi solid mass. (So I had to reheat it a bit to be able to pour the leftover polish into a glass jar for later.) It was so awesome seeing that little bit of beeswax turn all the oil into a kind of solid mass. I definitely have to try making lip balm some time with all my leftover beeswax.

Then I took a rag and used it to rub the mixture into the blocks. At first it just seemed like the blocks had an oily layer on them which I did not like. But I left them to absorb the mixture for 24 hours and then the next day I used the same rag to rub them again. And I was able to remove all the oily residue but the blocks were left looking beautiful and finished.
Here are some pictures of the finished products:

And now they're all wrapped up for Henry to unwrap on Christmas day. At 10 months I know he is a bit young for them but he does love knocking down towers so he should at least like them for that reason.

Dino Puppet

Henry has been LOVING the puppets in his Baby Einstein Video so I wanted to make a real puppet for him. After scouring the internet and the library I could not find a single free sewing pattern for a puppet so I had to come up with my own.

I managed to make one that turned out pretty well first try I think. And it ended up looking like a dinosaur so I decided to make it a dinosaur. It was really simple to make once I had the pattern figured out. I would like to upload the pattern on here as a contribution to the craft blogging community but not sure if there's an easy way to do that.

Henry likes his new puppet but not as much as the ones in Baby Einstein.

Another stegasaurus friend

Henry is so into playing with toys right now that I wanted to make him just one more. This one has crinkly sound, a bell, and tags. He threw up all over it last night - I think that means he likes it.

Henry's Crinkle Toy

I finished making Kevin's dinosaur embroidery into a little toy for Henry. I put the plastic from Kevin's corn flakes box inside to make it crinkle and added some ribbon tags too.

Henry still doesn't totally understand holding things in his hands and doing things with them but he does hold stuff and manages to bring it to his mouth too.

Stegasaurus Friend

Tonight I finished my first pull along toy. I am pretty happy with it. Especially because it opens up a whole new world of easy toys to make. Except there were a few chips in the stegasaurus after router-ing and drilling so I think I should stick to slightly simpler shapes because I was already being very careful.

Magnet toys

Kevin and I started these just before Henry was born and just finished them last night. It is a fun magnet play set for Henry to use when he gets a bit older. We used some 1/4" hardboard and Kevin did all the drawing and I used the scroll saw to cut them out. I think we still need a zoo keeper with a bucket of food.

Giraffe Toy

I got to do some sewing while watching Coronation Street while Henry slept yesterday afternoon. I finished this giraffe toy that I started just before Henry was born. I got the giraffe outline from the internet but it is mostly my creation. It has 2 small bells in it so it is a quiet rattle. I think I might save it to give as a gift to someone since Henry has so many toys already.

Birdie Rattle

I made this rattle from a pattern in a book. I put some beans in a plastic easter egg for the rattle part so at least it has a different sound to all the other rattles baby already owns.

Stacking Ring Toy

I finished this stacking ring toy today. I got the plans from a library book. It was pretty fun other than some frustration attaching the ball to the top of the stick. The plans said to use a dowel screw which was really annoying and I had to give up - using a dowel pin was miles easier.

Soft Blocks

I finally finished the soft blocks that I started before Christmas today. Today I did the stuffing and the hand sewing. It was really fun making them especially choosing what should go on each block. They are sloppy but I am still happy with them. It would have been much less fun to make them neater.