I made some surfboard earrings and thought I'd walk through some of what i did.
Joining the Wood
As with most wood working there were a lot of clamps, even for a tiny piece of wood. I cut a small block of teak in half and then a thin sliver of walnut on my table saw. It took an hour or two before I unclamped and started working with the wood.
Making Clean Cuts
As much as it seems inefficient to use a table saw to cut tiny pieces of wood for jewelry, it's been the only way I've found to make clean and uniform cuts of wood. To keep my fingers, I temporarily glue the small piece of wood to a larger one before running it through the saw. Once I had my surfboard board, I just cut out the shape i wanted with a jewelry saw and rounded the bottom with a file and some sandpaper.
not cutting my fingers off
Making Fins
I cut the fins from 18 gauge sterling silver and modified an existing sterling french hook for the "leash". To get the correct amount of solder in the correct place I fluxed and quickly melted a chip of solder(easy) on top of the end of the hook wire, which I unbent. I used easy solder to melt at a lower temp and avoid melting the wire itself. Then I fluxed the fin and soldered the wire to it(without melting everything into a puddle).
FInishing
After pickling the silver, I hit it with some 1000 grit paper. The boards got natural wood stain and a very thin coat of wax the following morning.
That's it. Feel free to ask any questions.
(And yes, some of you might have noticed a flaw in the surfboard design.)