Make That a Double!

A good problem to have: running out of spots on your stave for your second set of Blanton’s Original Single Barrel stoppers.* But, with a stave, drill, and Forstner bit that’s a problem easily solved.

Blanton’s tops off their amazing bottles of bourbon with these stoppers. Each has a letter near the lower rear hoof; once you collect all eight they spell out “BLANTONS” when placed in order (the 2nd ‘N’ includes a ‘:’ to differentiate it). The stoppers depict a jockey & horse approaching the starting line, racing, and winning the race (twice with a double set). The distillery sells stave stopper holders, but I made my own since it’s fairly easy to do and I prefer to flip the stave arch-up for stability.

I bought a set of 10 used staves at Amazon. I also use the staves as filler for my bourbon bottle lamps that I sell on Etsy, so I had a few good ones to choose from.

All it takes is drilling evenly spaced holes across the stave to hold your stoppers (8 holes for one set of stoppers; 16 for two). But there are a few tricks that can make this easier:

• Measurements: 3″ spacing for a single run of 8 stoppers, 2″ for a double run of 16 (as pictured above).
• Marking the Material: I made the measurement markings on a wide piece of painter’s tape since It’s too hard to spot a pencil mark and/or indent on the stave itself. Once I marked the tape I lifted it from the bench and centered it on the stave. Pro tip: This was super easy to do using my peg-board topped workbench as described in an earlier post, since I have quick 1″ markings on the workbench.
• Starting the Hole: I used a scratch awe to make a divot at the drill point to help align the Forstner bit before drilling.
• Drill Bit: I used a 1″ Forstner bit for a clean cut. A 7/8″ is too small; it’d be nice to have something in between for a snugger fit, but I had the 1″ and it worked fine. I drilled completely through the stave to ensure a flush stopper fit.
• Drill: I’m using my Delta Drill Press with my 4″ Drill Press Vise to secure the stave and get a clean cut. I eyeball leveled the stave in the vise so the stopper would sit flat on the stave.
• Drill holes from the end of the stave to the middle: I’m not ambidextrous so rotating the stave around after drilling half of the holes kept the stave in a more comfortable position.

But enough about making the stopper holder! It’s time to drink some Blanton’s 😉

*Yes, I consumed the full bottles (with family & friends); I didn’t buy the stoppers outright. It took some time to get to this point, especially since Blanton’s is nearly impossible to find!