Making buttons has a variety of benefits over purchasing them from a store. Making your own buttons is less expensive, more creative, and you can control the end result. If you’re making crafts, having custom-made buttons to finish them is a large competitive advantage. However, there is some trial and error associated with making your own buttons, although the learning curve is steep, it’s also short. Once you’ve mastered making them for yourself, you can easily produce enough buttons to sell to others, or to stockpile in a short amount of time.
How to Make Buttons
Selecting your material:
When choosing a material to make buttons with, the most important factor is the integrity of the wood. When using downed branches, it’s important to choose ones with some moisture left in them, or else your buttons will dry and crack after they are cut. However, too much moisture will make the end result too soft. Additionally, trees with heart wood are somewhat difficult to work with, but much more attractive. Ensure that the heart wood is in tact, as it can rot out of the wood before the rest. When using store-bought dowel, make sure there are no inclusions in the wood which would result in stress near the holes. Also, consider the size of the material. How big around do you want your buttons? What shape?
Hard woods make for tougher buttons, but are also much harder to work with. Finding a balance is important, especially if you have a particular look or color in mind.
Prepping you work area:
Start by selecting a hard surface to work on. Having a vice attached to a work bench is ideal, but is not necessary. A lot of lighting that does not throw shadows across the material is important, as you’ll be making many precision cuts and drills.
Have a sharp knife ready for trimming the bark off the material. Or, you have the option of leaving the bark on as a design element.
Have a saw (any saw works, but having the thinnest blade possible is best) appropriate for the material you’re working on. Hard woods require generally more aggressive blades. Have a power drill (or hand drill, if you want to attempt it. I don’t recommend it.) handy with a bit that is appropriate for the size of the wood you’re using. Hold the wood, cut end toward you, and the drill bit side-by-side and consider how much material will be left around the holes once you’re done drilling. More material is more strength, but there is no limit to creativity.
Have sandpaper ready. You can start with coarse-grit paper and work to finer-grit paper as you work. Keep in mind the kind of finished product you want. A rougher-look may be more appealing than a smooth finish.
Also have a container to put your buttons in. This steps helps avoid losing any in the considerable mess you’re about to create.
Finally, have a finish ready. You can dip the buttons in stain and rub them for a worn look, or any other variety of wood treatment. Traditionally, buttons were coated with bee’s wax to keep them moist and to allow them to slide easily through buttonholes in garments.
Getting started:
Place your material on the work surface or in the vice with the cut end toward you.
Trim the bark off (optional) with your knife, being careful to push the blade from the inside of the branch toward the outside, away from you. This will ensure that you don’t nick the edges of the cut end, and also to protect you from cutting yourself. Take as little material off as you can, but don’t worry, you’ll get better with practice.
Place the tip of your drill bit on the cut end, being sure the material is secure on the bench. This is where a vice is very useful. If you’re holding the material with your hand, use a thick towel or gloves to protect that hand, as you have the possibility of gouging yourself with the bit. Press the material to the work bench rather than hold it in the air. Begin drilling slowly, making sure to correct any miscalculation of the angle before the bit goes in to the wood. Once the bit has gone in to the wood, you’ve committed to that hole, as trying to move the bit now will most likely break it. Do this two to four times, spacing the holes on either side of the center for two, and forming a square around the center for four. Drilling in the heart wood is not advised, as it can often break away from the rest of the material.
Now, take your saw and take a thin cut off the face of the material if it needs to be leveled. If the material already has a flat face (such as dowel rod), or if you just don’t care about the consistency, begin cutting your first button. Make sure the saw is in exactly the angle you want, as once you begin cutting, you’ve committed to the shape of that button. Any inconsistencies that you want to be rid of can usually be sanded off easily enough. To avoid having a jagged cut on the bottom, apply a little pressure to the face of the material until the saw goes through. Slow, smooth motions will produce the best results until you gain experience. Make sure that you have enough material to make a button thick enough to hold its integrity. Too thin, and it will snap in half, too thick and it will be more difficult to use – but again, this is limited to your creativity.
It’s time to consider sanding the button. Here you can plane the faces of the button to make it level, as well as to remove saw marks or roughness. Start with a coarse sand paper, around 170-grit, and move up in grit in correlation to how smooth you want your button to be. Keep in mind that fine-grit sand paper clogs easily, which is the reason for starting with a rough grit first, to remove the loose fibers.
Finally, now you would consider a finish. You can simply opt to leave the button as-is and see what happens if you’re going for a unique look. This can be useful for jewelry. Stain, polyurethane, lacquer, and bee’s wax are good options, but try as many as you can, as the relative cost of making a button is low, and you use very little material finishing it.
You’ll find that making your own buttons has a lot of advantages, and that it gets much, much easier as you do it. Your cuts will be more precise and faster, until you can produce dozens in a few hours. Now store your buttons, and you’re finished!
