MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - One lucky Boise, Idaho woodworker - Ben Tyson - had his work featured this past week at the 2018 Super Bowl Experience in the Minneapolis Convention Center. Super Bowl LII, hosted the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eaglesat the nearby US Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Tyson - who has been making wooden footballs for over a decade - was contacted by JCM Set Design to create two footballs, one made of mahogany with boxwood laces and the other of walnut, that were featured on the NFL Network's sets during pre-game coverage of Super Bowl LII and connected events, according to KTVB 7.
The wooden footballs are made full size using lute body-type construction. The staves, which are 1/16-inch thick, are bent and edge-glued. Tyson told the KTVB that the ribs are made on a CNC and then hand bent using heat.
"I've seen solid wooden footballs, but to my knowledge, this lightweight, hollow, bent-wood football is unique," Tyson says on his website beychico.com.
Although his background is in engineering Tyson has been an avid fine woodworker for many years. Besides wooden footballs, Tyson also makes stringed instruments including a renaissance lute, guitar/lute hybrid, ukulele, djembe drum and violin. His original designs include wooden globes, vases and an adjustable height desk.
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