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The judges assessments are what I enter for. If I come 42nd but get some useful feedback it's been useful. If I come first but learn nothing I don't get anything out of it. The only times I've been dissapointed by the challenge is when I've got no feedback, that's what it's all about for me.

Right - there's two on us! Any advance on two?

Thanks for the positive words Richard and well done Bubba!

Graham That seems like a very good way forward. You're giving us a chance and you've given us fair warning. Come on folks - are we woodturners or do we just talk about it? I have no idea where to go with "multiple holes" so I will have to explore something new. Mmmmmm! All the best Ian

It's a fair point Graham. Once it gets down to four it's hard to see what the point is. If you keep running it I'll keep entering it as often as I can but I think you've had the "how do we get more people to enter" discussion often enough that I can understand you saying "sod it" or similar...

My entry is in three pieces - an Oak base with an Ash lid and a Hawthorn finial. As the competition was to produce a piece made of more than one wood I thought it would be interesting to use woods which had a relationship to each other or told a story. Years ago I read Kipling's Puck of Pook's...

Thanks Graham, Glad it's that you just forgot - was worried you might be dealing with some sort of problem. Slightly concerned that no-one else seems to have noticed. Am I the only person planning to enter? All the best Ian

Good morning Just checking that I'm not missing anything obvious. I can't see an Entry thread for the summer comp and am guessing it's just been a bit delayed but am a little concerned that I'm being dense! All the best Ian

I'd be blooming proud of those as first pieces - keep at it. Lots of different timbers, shapes, tools and techniques to explore but if you can knock those out early on you should have a lot of fun and not too much frustration. Enjoy!

The stuff they sell is usually top notch - but it ain't cheap! I work on the basis that good tools are always worth having. It's my excuse and I'm sticking to it :-)

Zis what you're after? http://woodsmithexperience.co.uk/shop/c ... l-turning/ They're good people, I've bought axes and billhooks from them. Aways good stuff. Cheers Ian

Make sure you let your sanding sealer dry completely - ie at least 24 hours - before waxing. Otherwise there's a good chance that the remaining solvents will take all the shine off your wax as they evaporate.

They're all different so get a bit of everything to learn what you like.and remember you can play with wood wet, turn bowls wet, turn blanks for boxes (which will dry much quicker then solid pieces) and if it's free you don't have to worry too much about loosing some to splitage and experience...

I think you'll be waiting a while for holly to dry for burning - it's so fine grained that it doesn't seem to dry in any great hurry. I love the wood but hate the fact that it usually splits on me - even with sealing and standing on end. It's just bloody minded awkward stuff but probably worth a...

Looks a lot like oak to me - if it's oak you should be able to see the tiny pores in the rings and fine radial lines too. Good wood to play with and not too hard to come by.

Cracking stuff - a perfect design for its intended use - but I suspect you may now be expected to make "the rest of the castle" You could be busy for a while :-)

Good evening My entry is a little pot. It's from a walnut off-cut I picked up recently from a local guitar maker. I cut a 75 x 75 x 75 cube to start off with and it's ended up 70mm high and 68mm in diameter. The base narrows to 23mm. Mostly turned with spindle gouges with some skew chisel...

I'm afraid I didn't - I find it dries slowly, splits horribly and burns beautifully but that's just my experience and I would agree entirely that it would be sacrilege to burn a nice big piece. Good luck with it - it has a lovely colour but, so far, I've had more luck burning it than turning it :-)

I don't have any purpose made hollowing tools so I use spindle gouges. There's a limit to how far you can hollow before the vibration becomes so severe that the finish suffers. I did have problems with catches which I think I've got past. For me the trick was to avoid the wing - so get the...

Indeed - looks like hawthorn to me. I find it likes to split but it is nice and dense (and burns beautifully!)