Christmas Presents #5 – Cat doorstop

It has been quite a busy few weeks since Christmas, both at work and at home as we prepare for a house move shortly. I spent all of last week house hunting with my wife and drove 1200 miles in 6 days up and down the country! So here is the final present idea in the series of five presents I made out of wood for this Christmas. I started with a heart shaped candle holder, which was given to mine and my wife’s best friend; then a cat shaped mobile phone holder and an elephant shaped mobile phone holder, which I gave to my parents; and then a bird doorstop, which ended up being a spare gift . This cat doorstop also ended up staying with us and is currently keeping the bird doorstop company at our house, ready to be moved to the new house in a few weeks! Our new house, when everything eventually goes through with the move, will mean we have lots more space and will hopefully allow me to have a permanent woodworking space in the garage. I will then be able to work on a lot more projects as I won’t be weather dependent any more and will not have to spend time setting everything up out the back of the garage every time I want to spend some time progressing a project. So I will be able to share a lot more on here over the next few months once we’ve done all the unpacking!

I started this project with an mdf template and used my jigsaw and some sanding to follow the contours of the stretching cat shape. I really like this design and when I have a more permanent workshop set up, I want to be able to create lots of projects like this so I can look to potentially sell them. Watch this space for when that happens!

Once the template was finished, I transferred the design to a piece of pine and clamped it in place so I could carefully cut out the cat shape. I have really got my moneys worth from my jigsaw, as I have used it an awful lot for all of these small projects! Although I could have done all of the cuts by hand, the jigsaw just made everything quicker and easier, and when I am trying to make as much progress on a project as I can in between weather storms, anything which speeds up the process is clearly a benefit!

I tidied up the jigsaw cuts with my coping saw and then prepared for a nice long period of sanding! I worked my way up through the grits and then wiped over the whole cat with a damp cloth to raise the grain. I am always amazed and how rough the surface can then become again, but how much better and smoother it is following further sanding to get a completely smooth finish.

So this little cat will be coming with us to our new house which we will be hopefully moving in to at some point from mid-March onwards depending on when the current occupants look to move. There is always a chain, so we shall just have to be patient and I can do lots of planning of what projects I will be making next – Jenny has already requested something to sit on in the hall at the new house, so I will get designing and share that here once it’s made! 🔨