The business of business.

I just got into the business of business. I made my first business card holder and it came out pretty sweet (if I do say so my own self). This one has the roundel carved into the face of it. That was pretty tricky. Let me explain...

The business card holder you see is made of three pieces of maple. I was going to try to carve it out of a single piece, but I would have basically had to carve out a thin slot (mortise) from a large piece of wood and then cut the wood around the mortise. I could have probably worked this out, but when you start to use a lot of wood, the price goes up (good wood is expensive!).

So what you have is two rectangular pieces of maple with a third, U-shaped, piece sandwiched between the first two. This, of course, is all glued up and shaped to look like a business card holder. That wasn't enough, of course. None of the wood items of my site seem to be able to escape the constant carving that takes place in the WoodShop. I put a roundel on the first one because it's the prototype and it's for me and that's what I wanted. The act of carving the roundel was pretty tricky because the wood is so thin (about 1/8 of an inch). I had to be careful not to carve out too much or the business card holder would have had a "feature".

I can (within reason) put pretty much anything on there. If you've seen those tattoo fail memes that have been floating around the internet for the past few years, you probably know that it's not in your best interest to ask me to put a picture of your spouse or your kid or your dog on there. I would NOT do well at that. However, if you have a logo or something that you'd like on there, I can do that pretty well.

This thing holds about 16 of my business cards, but how many it holds depends on the thickness of the stock. I could see it holding about 20 if they're thin or maybe 12 if you have the ultra plush versions.

I made this solely with the intention of carrying it around to be sure I have my cards with me wherever I go, but I quickly realized that it looks pretty awesome standing up too, so this could definitely be a desk piece as well.

Thanks for reading and check out some other photos of the business card holder in the gallery below.