Wooden Page Holder

Christmas gift idea for a person who likes to read. Quick and easy to make.

What you need:

- Piece of wood (At least 10x3x2cm)

- Drill

- Saw of some kind (I used motorized miter saw)

- Grinder of some kind

- Sandpaper (400-ish for the finishing touch)

- Lacquer or some other method for finishing & protection

Step 1: The Blueprint

All you need is a piece of wood that is at least 10x3cm square. Thickness of the wood is up to you, I've made some that are only 1cm thick but the optimal would be around 1,5 to 2 cm thick. You may want to use a board and draw several of these patterns on it before drilling and sawing if you want to start a mass production. It is a lot easier to drill the holes before sawing believe me.

The drawing that I quickly made afterwards shows the basic shape of the piece before grinding. You can use the drill to shape the piece further before cutting it out of the wood as seen in the second picture. The diameter of the hole should be measured from the recipient. For a man's thumb it would be around 20mm as seen in the picture and for a woman it should be a lot smaller. You want to be holding this with the tip of your thumb

Step 2: Shaping

I basically used the grinder to shape the pieces after sawing them out of the original board. Those are the 2 shapes that I was the most satisfied with. I ended up making the ones which have smooth curve on other side purely because they are faster to manufacture.

Step 3: Advanced and Finishing Touch

To make ones that look a bit better I made a glued sandwich board of 2 different wood panels I found in our trash bin. After the pieces got their rough shape I used sandpaper to smoothen the edges and dipped the pieces in lacquer. I added several layers of lacquer to make them shine a bit more and of course used sandpaper before each dip.

Happy making!

Comments

[FaraazFighter51]

What kind of wood did you use?

[PasiL1]

If I remember correctly those were birch and walnut.

[qcidiana]

what a great idea, I would love one. Asking 2 wood working friends to see if I can have 1 made. I go through books like water.

[PasiL1]

Hope you get one!

[matthewbailey]

Add a string to it with a knot at the end so you can use it as a bookmark and not have to chase it down every time you want to use it.

[PasiL1]

Thank you for the idea! Actually I was thinking of making a hole and adding a string but only because it would have made the laqcuering a lot easier. I'll try that the next time when I make some more of these!

[alohapussycat]

There was an Instructable years ago utilizing popsicle sticks and Suguru putty to make one of these. It inspired me to make a version using 3D printing. Two versions exist and here are the links to the files at Thingiverse....

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:144660

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:147376

...one of the pages includes a link to the original Instructable.

[PasiL1]

Thanks for the links. I was not aware of those as I'm new here. I got my idea from old photo which had something like this in it, can't remember where it was though. .

[silkier]

CarmelitoAndrade posted something similar out of plastic about a year ago and I was impressed with it but with no 3D printer it wasn't possible for me to make. Someone suggested making one of wood at that time and here it is.

Good 'ible, much prefer wood as a starting material too. Holding a real book in the hand is so much more satisfying than an ebook and a wooden page holder completes the aesthetic.

Thank you. (Got my vote too)

[PasiL1]

You're welcome! -and me too about the real books. I actually hate those e-books. Those just cause headache

[slegorreta]

Very ontime instructable for Christams gifts.

Thanks for sharing, and thanks for the templates too!

[PasiL1]

You're welcome, glad you like it!

[an4rchos]

Really nice idea, easy to make and beutiful!

[PasiL1]

Thanks, good to hear this was useful

[ClenseYourPallet]

Beautiful work!!

[PasiL1]

Thanks! Though nothing compared to the stuff you have made!

[rosey gillespie]

This is a good and helpful idea. I would not worry about making different sized thumb holes because it seems that what holds this to the pages being read is the pressure that our thumb exerts on only one part of the hole so size doesn't really matter. What do you think? I also think that this would make a great gift to use at gift giving times. If you enjoy making them , maybe you might like to make them for sale to book lovers everywhere through book clubs, libraries, church reading groups etc. This then might turn out to be a hobby that brings in a little cash for you. good luck.

[PasiL1]

You are absolutely right about the size of the hole. It does not matter as long as it is big enough. I wrapped these with books and gave as christmas gifts. At least it was nice to give these away ?
I'm planning to make my students to do these or something similar next semester, we shall see how succesfull that will be..

[voixhumain]

this is brilliant! for people who read a lot of books. this enables you to read/view pages in new books without breaking the books spine.

[wildecat000]

How does this page holder work?