How to Make Birch Wedding Card Holders

By Robert Robillard on How To

How to Make Birch Wedding Card HoldersMaking Natural Birch Place Card Holders

Natural Birch place card holders are perfect for that special occasion or rustic wedding to greet your guests and to identify and decorate your party tables.

These charming holders are made of real birch branches, and are perfect for decorating tables whether detailing seating for guests, identifying names or labeling food entrees. Birch lends a rustic quality to your tablescape, décor and or rustic theme. This article will explain how to make birch wedding card holders

How to Make Birch Wedding Card Holders

How to Make Birch Wedding Card Holders

Rustic Birch table place card holders are made of natural birch, and can be any shape or size you desire. You can use branches with a series of slits to identify guest seating at a table or cut pieces of a larger Birch branch for table numbers or entrée name holders.

For table settings, we typically we cut a 3-4” tall piece approximately 4” in diameter. The top and bottom are sanded smooth, and two slots are cut at a o degree or 25 degree angle.  the two slots account for a folded placard, shown in photo above.  If you are using one sheet of paper – center your slot.

The benefit of having a 25 degree angle is the place card site at a comfortable reading angle.

How to Make Birch Wedding Card Holders

Making the Birch Card Holders

  1. Determine how many place cards you need and multiple that times the height of your holders to get a total inches of Birch needed. Order extra more mis-cuts and irregularities in the Birch.
  2. Buy or cut your birch rounds to your size of choice. We purchased ours through a local nursery supply store.
  3. We cut our Birch logs to size using a cordless chainsaw
  4. After cutting all of your parts its time to cut a card slot.
  5. Measure and mark the centerline on the Birch parts.
  6. We measured and cut our slots on a sliding miter saw with a depth setting.   There is safety “saw kick back “concern when cutting rounded and irregular objects. To avoid this we build a cradle jig to hold the Birch securely in the saw.  If your a DIY-er we recommend using a handsaw for safety.
  7. Another non-power tool alternative to cutting the slot is to use a handsaw. To do this you will also need a vise of clamping method. Simply clamp the Birch piece securely in the vise.   Position the Birch sideways in the vise and use the vise jaw as a guide to cut a center mark with a handsaw.
  8. Using your handsaw, you’ll be sawing a slit/slice into the birch. Be careful to keep an eye on how deep your cut is. It doesn’t need to be big being that it will be holding a piece of paper or cardstock the size of a business card.
  9. Sand the top and bottom smooth.

How to Make Birch Wedding Card Holders

Note – on the long branches you will need to cut all your branches to a uniform size to fit your table.   Then space out you cards and mark the birch with a felt marker.  Clamp the branch in a vise and make your cuts with a handsaw.

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About the author

Robert Robillard

Carpenter / Remodeler / Editor

Rob Robillard is “The Concord Carpenter” Rob is a builder, general contractor, carpenter, woodworker, and editor of Concord Carpenter and ToolBoxBuzz As a General Contractor and carpenter, Rob owns and operates Concord Carpenter LLC. A full-service remodeling and construction company. Rob is a recognized leader in home building best practices and a source for how-to information for building professionals. On this website, Rob covers all aspects of home construction, building science, home improvement, woodworking, remodeling, and some of the best product and tool reviews. Rob is in charge of our Tool and Product Review series - Concord Carpenter Videos where we post all of our tool reviews and video tutorials. Rob approaches remodeling and building construction with a pragmatic and problem-solving approach. He enjoys using his knowledge and experience to help and educate building professionals as well as DIYers on best practices in the construction and remodeling industry. He's a strong advocate for "raising the bar" in the construction trades and promoting the trades to youth. #BeAMentor #Green2Great Craftsmanship, quality, and pride guide his journey on this channel The Concord Carpenter's motto: "Well done is better than well said!" : Read more about Rob

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