This was a fun one. I recently ran across this Rockler event on making wood bow ties for Father’s day (don’t remember how I stumbled on it so long after Father’s day?).
The idea just tickled me, with the bow ties being “real” for woodworking, but wearing them. Somehow in my thinking about ideas, it occurred to me to make a more realistic bow tie, and I stumbled on quite a few models on GrabCad. I used this one.
The file was for 3d printing and had this thingy on the back to hang on your top button. I didn’t love that, so I just made an extruded cut to remove that. I used a couple adaptive cuts (1/4in and then again with a 2mm tapered ball end due to the deep wrinkle pockets). Final finishing was a parallel toolpath using the same 2mm ball end.
Finishing passes:
Ended up making one for my son as well in a super curly maple which I dyed using some leftover black tie dye to go with his black attire (I went with walnut crotch to go with my blue/gray, and simply because the wood is freaking gorgeous).
I glued a simple “bridge” thingy on the back and ran the ribbon underneath, which I got at Hobby Lobby along with two sets of bow tie hardware.
They turned out sweet in my opinion… although all of zero people commented on them 