Recently my son Brad asked if I could make a gavel for a model parliament his students would be holding in November. Hmmm…. goes the brain….This would be a good project to use up some premium wood that has been hanging around my shop for years.  As many projects go the scope increased in complexity as I ruminated on the design.  Just as I was beginning the gavel a friend, Jim Beebe gave me some beautiful wood from the Soloman Islands. With the exquisite grain patterns of the two boards Jim gave me it seemed to be a perfect fit for a box to hold the gavel and sound block.  The African Black Wood used to make the gavel head was given to me about 15 years ago by another friend, Ron Davidson. The wood for the gavel handle and the hinges (African Black Wood), the sound block (a mystery wood), and the supports inside the box (Cocobolo Wood) all came from Renaldo’s Wood Supply, one of those small prairie town (Arlee Sk.) gems that Rick Dawson ran for many years as a major supplier of exotic woods from around the world.