Water Ski Table & Sign

More fun with water skis. I got this pair of vintage Dekko Lake Region water skis at an online estate auction for $37. These were probably made in the mid-1970's and in were in surprisingly good condition. 

I cleaned the skis and removed the screws to remove the bindings. 

Bindings removed

After needing to fill all of the holes on the skis in my recent bench project, I opted to screw the binding clips back in place, thinking that it added to the ski appearance as well. It took me some time to figure out how I wanted to cut the skis, and exactly where, to preserve the designs as much as possible. I had to make careful measures and markings, given that the skis aren't flat, nor rectangular. I used Cara's miter saw to cut each ski into thirds, as well as the remaining length of 2x3 board I used in the bench, planning how I'd join the ends so the joints would be hidden under the table legs. The skis were wide enough that they couldn't be cut in one go, so there was dremel and hand sanding involved to smooth the cut edges. 

Frame assembled, ready to stain

I assemble the frame offsetting the screws so they wouldn't be in the way when I screwed on the table legs. I stained the frame and then gave it a coat of poly. I stained the cut ends of the skis and touched up the stain on the ends. I added a coat of gloss poly to the table top to protect it.

September

I wasn't quite done having fun with water skis. I got this vintage wood one off Facebook Marketplace for $10. I was going for a distressed look, and this already had it. I cleaned it, then put on two coats of poly. I added house numbers. The hardest part was figuring out how I wanted to mount it in the ground. I wanted to screw the ski to a 4x4 so the ski wouldn't be on the ground. Rather than a post that surrounds the 4x4 on all sides, I wanted a U-shaped one to allow the ski. I finally found one on Amazon. The screw in section that goes into the ground was enormous and well over 14" long. It was a big effort (and took over 2 hours) to dig a hole in the ground with all of the rocks in it and finally get the post screwed in.

Digging process

End result