Several years ago I had an abundance of wormy-chestnut scrap that either needed to be used or thrown away. Sacrilege, to say the least. I'm not sure of what prompted me to make coat hangers, but that's where we ended up.
I used a fancy one from my closet as a template. That's what helped me get the compound angles right. A dowling jig that I built helped drill the holes for the dowels that hold the arms together, along with some yellow glue.
For the thousandth time, I swore never to become a metal-worker. Those folks have my hat off to them. Making the actual crook part of the hanger and getting it to look esthetically appealing may have been the hardest part of the whole job. Of course I used a bending jig for it (making jigs is half the fun of any project!) but the steel wanted to bend back and finding the right radii for the bends was tricky. In the end, it was done and several hooks turned out nicely. (I have since purchased some ready-made hooks to save frustration.)
I used Gorilla Glue to hold the hook into the hole bored out between the arms. So far, no one has reported failure of either the joint, the hook or the hook-to-hanger fastening.
Show here are a Wormy-Chestnut hanger and a Cocobolo hanger.
