On Making a Knob, Briefly

There was nowhere to hang our coat in our new place on Prospect Park West.

Joshua Tawney

2026

On Craft

~4 MIN READ

*The Knob A 4.5″ diameter disc with a 0.5″ laser cutting of the same pine wood; the cylindrical base anchors the endeavor to the wall. Sanded and coated in polyurethane, the dawn slipped in to seal the deal.

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After enough days at the screen the hands start asking. There is no thesis attached. Just the want of something to hold that isn't a phone.

*The parts, laid out. Wood blanks (sanded), laser-cut rings (pine, stained), dowels, screws — on a sofa across from my tool closet, before any of it was anything yet.

*An early sketch, before the parts arrived. The form already roughly itself.

I first came across a similar design by Dorothy Loupang at BRANDT Copenhagen, while researching specifications for the Sackett St. project. There was no drawn brief, no inspiration document — just the want, and a few hours. So I took stock of what tools and materials I had on hand, and got to work.

One summer between semesters at Cornell, I worked for a local woodworker in Ithaca named Jim Bruno. He taught me how to find the center of any circle with a square. Mark two intersections, two times. The center reveals itself. I have used this trick more times than the work it was meant to support.

**The plan, on the wood itself.* A ruler, a sketch of the hole layout, a pencil sharpener. Drawing on the workpiece is faster than drawing on a screen — and the center, courtesy of Jim Bruno.

There was some trial and error in the spacing between the dowels and screws — and the depth of each within the base cylinder. Tolerances had to be tight for a snug fit, but pine is not the hardest of woods, and splitting it is easy. A .25 drill bit and some wriggling did the trick.

**In hand, mid-assembly.* Two dowels, two screws, no finish yet. The joinery decides what the form can become.

**With staining complete.* I was happy to be at a stage where the necessary tools fit on my cutting mat. The OCD always remains.

*The result, in profile. Rockite cast model blurred behind.

It shows the lines of its Frankenstein assembly — the charcoal stain mocks me, knowing the perfect shape is not at the hand a person. The competing directions of the wood grain. The curious subtle inset line just below the rim, a seam from the pre-constructed plaque that I chose to keep, rather than fit my vision by sanding it away.

Wood, for what it's worth, is also the rarest material we know of in the universe. Life-grown, planet-specific, found nowhere else we have looked. Working it for an afternoon is a small thing sitting inside a much larger fact.

*Installation, Brooklyn. If the apartment changes hands eventually — relationships do — the knob travels too. Made to be carried, or gifted forward.

**The complete intent.* A coat, a friend, a hanging light. The kind of system that grows without a plan.

A small thing, finally on the wall. Made before drawn.

Notes

About

A brief making — wood blanks, dowels, screws, an afternoon. Useful because the want preceded the drawing.