My first Niles Bottle Stopper

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wolf creek knives

wolf creek knives

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I've turned a few bottle stoppers that I've gotten from PSI but was really never happy with the Chrome finish especially after seeing where the Chrome gets pretty nasty looking. So a while back Ruth had some stoppers on sale I thought I'd give them try. I'm happy to report that they are VERY nice to work with and should last a life time. This stopper is on it's way to a Scottish friend of mine who has her own pub, not in Scotland but in Oregon. I think she will like it and it fits perfectly in a Scotch Whisky bottle...I tried it myself. The wood is Rocky Mountain Maple off my property. The second picture has my first attempt at turning the handle for the stopper but holding up the good stopper. I had some issues that were resolved once I figured out what I was doing.

nilesbottlestopper1.jpgnilesbottlestopper2.jpg
 
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Fancy keeping an empty bottle in the liquor cabinet !!!! .....:confused::rolleyes:

Oh, well ... it's all sorted out now ....

.... and that's a lovely stopper you are sending to your friend .... very well done !!!
 
Curly said:
A little on the tall side for putting back in the cupboard but the detailing is clean and crisp.

You do know that bottle stoppers are for quitters don't you? 🤣
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I think this one will sit on a bar or glass shelf. I do know the story and I related a story about trying to kill a bottle of Tequila many moons ago as a young and stupid U.S. Navy Sailor. The outcome was not good at all 🤢
 
Curly said:
Ops Sorry. 🤤 Guess I should have had a stopper when I was younger. Might have a little better memory.;)
A step drill for sheet metal makes a hole that is just right for holding a stopper upright if you need to make a stand.
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Good to know on the step drill, I appreciate the info. Nothing to be sorry about, I've done a lot of pretty stupid things in my life like the time me and three of my Navy buddies got thrown in a Tijuana jail for tearing a bar up. You guessed it...like you I should have left the stopper in the bottle(s). Shore Patrol came and got us the next day and they threw the book at us. Cost me some cash and a whole bunch of time doing "Extra Military Instruction". Nothing instructing about it at all, just a lot of hard work.
 
Curly said:
Ops Sorry. 🤤 Guess I should have had a stopper when I was younger. Might have a little better memory.;)
A step drill for sheet metal makes a hole that is just right for holding a stopper upright if you need to make a stand.
Click to expand...
good tip and I just got me one of those a few months back by accident. You know an "it'll come in handy for something, sometime "kind of acquisition . Found it a job already !
 
Curly said:
A little on the tall side for putting back in the cupboard but the detailing is clean and crisp.

You do know that bottle stoppers are for quitters don't you? 🤣
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You stole my line didn't you 😀😀 ... I use that in my booth at the market when people are looking at my stoppers... sometimes gets a laugh, sometimes gets a very blank look.... often results in a sale.
 
magpens said:
Fancy keeping an empty bottle in the liquor cabinet !!!! .....:confused::rolleyes:
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Never kept an empty scotch bottle in the liquor cabinet, but stored a full bottle there still in the gift can it came in for about 20 years... I can't stand the taste of Scotch... too much like cough syrup to me... a good Canadian for me, though not much of that anymore... prefer a good cold porter.

Can relate to the Navy stories... on my 22nd birthday, my buddies and I drank our way from the naval station in San Diego all the way into downtown San Diego... celebrating birthdays of most of the crew... first and only time I ever passed out, spent a few hours on a city bench before I arrived at the pick up station for the cab ride back to the base...don't know where my buddies went, didn't know any of the guys in the cab, don't know how much money I gave the driver and don't know how I made it across a tin-can tender and 5 tin-cans to the outside mooring... I was in the rack less than an hour before revely (sp) and we were underway an hour later, I was assigned as captain's phone talker and still so drunk I couldn't speak clearly....
 
wolf creek knives said:
I've turned a few bottle stoppers that I've gotten from PSI but was really never happy with the Chrome finish especially after seeing where the Chrome gets pretty nasty looking. So a while back Ruth had some stoppers on sale I thought I'd give them try. I'm happy to report that they are VERY nice to work with and should last a life time. This stopper is on it's way to a Scottish friend of mine who has her own pub, not in Scotland but in Oregon. I think she will like it and it fits perfectly in a Scotch Whisky bottle...I tried it myself. The wood is Rocky Mountain Maple off my property. The second picture has my first attempt at turning the handle for the stopper but holding up the good stopper. I had some issues that were resolved once I figured out what I was doing.

View attachment 235019View attachment 235020
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I like your stopper, nice clean lines and pretty wood.
I've never used Ruth's stoppers, though have heard many good things about them. Agree about the PSI chrome finished stoppers... the chrome will chip and corrode.... I buy my stoppers from a company in Seattle caled EZ-POTS.... same stainless steel as Ruth uses, but half the price..... nothing against Ruth, but looking at cost and profits.
 
Dalecamino said:
Tom, the stopper looks great. How did you finish it? Navy stories sound similar to mine. :cool:
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Hey Chuck. The finish on this stopper is 3-4 coats of WOP that I put on as a friction finish. Let it sit overnight, hit it next day with some 00 steel wool then some min wax floor wax then to the buffing wheel. I give instructions to every customer letting them know that to bring back the shine just put some furniture wax on it, but not stuff like pledge. Never have had a complaint.
Oh to be young and stupid again. I'm still suffering from the dumb stuff I did in the Navy. If I knew then what I know now I probably wouldn't have done them....but then that wouldn't have been any fun and it does make for some nice stories:eek:.
 
TellicoTurning said:
Never kept an empty scotch bottle in the liquor cabinet, but stored a full bottle there still in the gift can it came in for about 20 years... I can't stand the taste of Scotch... too much like cough syrup to me... a good Canadian for me, though not much of that anymore... prefer a good cold porter.

Can relate to the Navy stories... on my 22nd birthday, my buddies and I drank our way from the naval station in San Diego all the way into downtown San Diego... celebrating birthdays of most of the crew... first and only time I ever passed out, spent a few hours on a city bench before I arrived at the pick up station for the cab ride back to the base...don't know where my buddies went, didn't know any of the guys in the cab, don't know how much money I gave the driver and don't know how I made it across a tin-can tender and 5 tin-cans to the outside mooring... I was in the rack less than an hour before revely (sp) and we were underway an hour later, I was assigned as captain's phone talker and still so drunk I couldn't speak clearly....
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Scotch is an acquired taste, so they say. When I used drink Scotch it was always a single malt, it's much smoother. I don't drink anymore except once in a great while and it's only a shot, no more.
When I was stationed in San Diego, Broadway was all strip clubs, bars and military shops. I was back in the area in 2001 and it's all changed. It's a business area now and I believe it was called "The Gas Light District". But there weren't any bars or strip clubs. They also shut down the Recruit Naval Training Center quite a while back, so I'm sure that impacted the downtown area a lot.
 
wolf creek knives said:
Scotch is an acquired taste, so they say. When I used drink Scotch it was always a single malt, it's much smoother. I don't drink anymore except once in a great while and it's only a shot, no more.
When I was stationed in San Diego, Broadway was all strip clubs, bars and military shops. I was back in the area in 2001 and it's all changed. It's a business area now and I believe it was called "The Gas Light District". But there weren't any bars or strip clubs. They also shut down the Recruit Naval Training Center quite a while back, so I'm sure that impacted the downtown area a lot.
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Haven't been back to San Diego but once since I got out of the Navy... that was about 25 years ago when the wife and I were in Los Angeles where I was evaluating a computer program for the company I worked for and we took time to visit her step-mother, then took a drive to San Diego to see the zoo... didn't go down town at all....
Don't know when you were stationed in SAN, but I was there in boot camp at NTC and Radio School on the same base from Sep 1960 until about August of '61.... then we were back there in about late September of '63 when the ship was there TDY... only there about a week, then back to SF to our regular port. You are right about the strip clubs, bars, and shops geared to bilking the sailors.... don't know why I remember it, but the last bar I was in during my birthday celebration was The Apache Club right on Broadway... don't remember much after leaving the club, except I sat on a bench in front of the club, got sick and barfed off the curb and watch a bunch of coins fall out of my tunic into the barf... I left it there. Next memory is arriving a the taxi stand off a side street somewhere and getting in a cab with 6 or 8 other sailors from the other ships tied up to the tender... I told the driver I couldn't walk all the way to pier 8 and wanted a ride... he said would cost %0.50 extra... still don't know how much money I gave him, just reached in my jumper pocket and handed him a hand full... he didn't object so I guess it was enough. :D
 
TellicoTurning said:
Haven't been back to San Diego but once since I got out of the Navy... that was about 25 years ago when the wife and I were in Los Angeles where I was evaluating a computer program for the company I worked for and we took time to visit her step-mother, then took a drive to San Diego to see the zoo... didn't go down town at all....
Don't know when you were stationed in SAN, but I was there in boot camp at NTC and Radio School on the same base from Sep 1960 until about August of '61.... then we were back there in about late September of '63 when the ship was there TDY... only there about a week, then back to SF to our regular port. You are right about the strip clubs, bars, and shops geared to bilking the sailors.... don't know why I remember it, but the last bar I was in during my birthday celebration was The Apache Club right on Broadway... don't remember much after leaving the club, except I sat on a bench in front of the club, got sick and barfed off the curb and watch a bunch of coins fall out of my tunic into the barf... I left it there. Next memory is arriving a the taxi stand off a side street somewhere and getting in a cab with 6 or 8 other sailors from the other ships tied up to the tender... I told the driver I couldn't walk all the way to pier 8 and wanted a ride... he said would cost %0.50 extra... still don't know how much money I gave him, just reached in my jumper pocket and handed him a hand full... he didn't object so I guess it was enough. :D
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I was there in 72. Probably a lot of changes. One thing that always annoyed me about being in the Navy was not being able to wear our uniforms. When I traveled it was in civvies, when we went off base it was in civvies. I was damn proud of my uniform but there were those that didn't think the same way. There was a lady in New York that tried to cough a luggie on me but missed, lucky for her. I swear if I ever see her again I'll punch her in the face. That was probably the last time I wore my uniform in public. Not a good time.
 
wolf creek knives said:
I was there in 72. Probably a lot of changes. One thing that always annoyed me about being in the Navy was not being able to wear our uniforms. When I traveled it was in civvies, when we went off base it was in civvies. I was damn proud of my uniform but there were those that didn't think the same way. There was a lady in New York that tried to cough a luggie on me but missed, lucky for her. I swear if I ever see her again I'll punch her in the face. That was probably the last time I wore my uniform in public. Not a good time.
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Interesting about the uniform... I was there pre-vietnam, so we weren't allowed civvies on base, had to keep them in a locker off base...boot cam we were not allowed civvies at all.... and travel in uniform was normal, but had to be in dress blues.... I left Guam in January of '63 at 80+ temperature and nearly 100% humidity... dress blues were hot. I couldn't get into civvies until after I processed through Travis AFB and arrived in the SF airport to catch my flight home to Texas.
I was out right after Vietnam was declared official police action, so never experienced any of the animosity that America directed to our servicemen... that was another shameful time in our history.
 
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