Project Photos

It is time. For photos of the latest project. From start to finish.

First I had to go to the place of curse, and get the raw materials. Which consisted of wooden poles. Like this.



This is the raw material. Plain old boring pine poles. Now I could have just used them like they were. But as someone once said in a comment here "nothing finishes a project like paint". Or something.

But I did not want to use paint. I thought that some wood stain would look better. Plus stain is easier to use. You gop the stuff on. No need to worry about brush strokes or over application. Just slop it on there! Let it sit for a few minutes (15 max) then wipe it off with a rag. The rag removes excess stain, and what is left is only the stuff that soaked into the wood.


Here is the pole, sanded and stained. I also cut the notch in the bottom of the pole, which you can sort of see. The notch is important because it keeps the pole from turning in the rod holder.

But you can not just stain something and call it done! Oh no. You have to apply clear varnish over the stain! It seals the wood and makes it all shiny any stuff. So you have to apply one coat, let it dry, lightly sand the finish with very fine grit sandpaper, then apply another coat. Repeat as desired. Three coats is probably enough, but I went with 4 or 5.

Here you can see a staff hanging from my fancy high tech drying apparatus. Notice how it is sort of shiny? Well that is wet varnish. But the pole is hanging outside and dries quickly. I used heavy fishing line and the kayak wall mount thing to make the fancy drying apparatus.
Now this is more like it! The close up shot reveals the staff in more detail. See how nice the stain looks? You can still see the wood grain. Paint covers up the grain. But this is still drying.

And now, the finished product. This is not the same staff as the one in the above photos, but it was done with the same steps.
Now this is starting to look finished! You can see the stainless steel eye bolt, and my fancy high tech flag attachment method. Cable ties. MUCH nicer than plain unfinished wood!!


The end result. From a plain boring pine pole, to a drilled notched stained varnished boat flag staff.

And they want $50 for a boring aluminum pole flag staff. HA! That wood was $1.30 a foot. Each staff is two feet. So that is a whole whopping $2.60. The stainless hardware was three or four bucks. So that is what - $6.60? The stain and varnish were $3.50 each - but I do not need an entire can for one staff. So lets figure I used 50 cents of stain and varnish. Up to $7.10! So I have less than $10 locked up in each staff.

Now - if I can just manage to not have these fly out of the boat when it is being towed home........