RWW 172 Stupid Woodworking Tricks: The Chip Clip

I mentioned making a chip clip on Wood Talk a few weeks ago and I was stunned by how many emails I got asking for details and pictures. So I sacrificed another plastic chip clip and made another one but filmed it this time. This is one of those stupid woodworking projects that doesn’t test a lot of skills but is dang fun to produce. Who else can claim to have such a sexy chip clip eh?

At the outset of this project you need to make a choice as to how you want to orient the grain. I chose to let it run along the “blades” of the clip so they wouldn’t break along the longer dimension. This however leaves a short grain situation across the fulcrum point and a potential weak spot that can break in the future. This is why I added the Walnut pieces to back it up and strengthen this short grain. It adds a nice touch too…literally as the hand carved surface feels really cool under the fingers. This project took about 45 minutes to complete and used up some scrap pieces so give it a shot and pamper your bags of chips!