As July, 2000 was coming to an end a friend asked me to make a funeral urn for his Father who had lost his battle with cancer. To say the least, I was left feeling honored to have been asked to do so.

I asked Tony if he had any particular design in mind and he stated, "Make it 6" square and 10" tall with a lid."

I'm sorry...this was too plain and too simple and seemed to me that since I knew his Father this should give considerable leave to alter the design as I deemed necessary.

I first got started by gluing up the top in a heptagon shape with the middle part being Maple and the outer ring in Mahogany. The Jorgensen band clamp did a superb job in bringing everything together. In any glue-up wax paper can be your friend.

After all the pieces of the outer ring were glued up and setting in the band clamp, I turned my attention to assembling the base. Like the Maple center of the top, it's a heptagon and the bottom is somewhat reminiscent of a Shaker design where I raised it and set it into a dado that is 2" up from the absolute base. As you progress along your virtual tour, you'll see a picture that shows this feature a little better.

After the glue set up for the top I chucked it on the lathe and began turning it.

Here are two views of the top after turning into final shape and the finish applied:

Depending upon the finish being used, I'll sometimes leave the lathe turning at a really slow RPM then apply the finish and allow the piece to spin dry.

After the top dried I chucked the base on the lathe and turned it to shape.

My friend's Father was an avid bowler and as an added design feature, I drilled holes at the junction of each member of the side to accept a Mahogany dowel that was previously turned on the lathe. The dots were meant to represent the alignment dots on the bowling alley floor. Here, you can see the Shaker-like bottom I mentioned earlier.

And here's a shot of the Urn in toto...