Goldheart Woodworking

Some dear friends are expecting a baby, and having been a father for almost two years now I felt I ought to make something special for the occasion. I came up with the idea of a rolling clacker toy that clicks along as you roll it (I’m certain I didn’t invent this first, but this is made of my design). As the mother is Hawaiian and the father grew up in what in my mind is Hickory country, I used Koa for the wheels and Hickory dowels. It felt like some nice symbolism to me. I wasn’t really prepared for just how expensive Koa wood is, but I do feel I did right by it.

I started by machining the Koa on the CNC, with the hole patterns mirrored to bookmatch the grain on the wheels.

The clackers are made of some of my standard woods: walnut, maple, and padauk. Just look at that chatoyance on the Koa, that’s just sanded and wet, no finish:

I coated each piece with spray shellac before assembly and let it all cure for a few days so nothing would stick. I was so pleased with how it came out that I decided to make a few more, and eventually from this, another Etsy product was born.