Cherry Goblet

[Random Orbital Bob]

And whilst we're on the subject of the skill of wood turning.....here's some evidence that I don't have much

First proper goblet I've ever turned. From cherry that my kids school caretaker gave me last summer so its probably not really dry yet. I really enjoyed making this and I think the wall thickness is about 1mm too chunky but I like goblets for sure. It was mostly skew with a bit of tickling with the detail spindle gouge. Hollowed with a spindle gouge and a scraper. Finish was Cellulose SS plus chestnut clear wax. 2 coats of each denibbed after the first coat of ss.

CC welcome...tools were sharp as a razor

 

[Woodmonkey]

Like it - nice proportions and great finish. Little bit too busy on the beadings for my taste, sometimes less is more (that's just me I like really simple stuff)

 

[gregmcateer]

"bit of tickling with the spindle..."

Bet you say that to all the girls!

Nice looking piece. It may be a bit busy, but never having tried a goblet, I'm impressed with the workmanship and the finish. And man is that light for cherry - I always thought it would be darker than that.

Interestingly, I have some cherry from none other than the caretaker at the kids' school - spooky!

 

[Dalboy]

A good try could have done better :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: How many times have you heard that

Seriously Not a bad attempt I agree a bit too much going on If they are meant to be beads then a little more rounded tops to them also the thin piece below the large bead does not fit with the design of the chunky look. Other than that a nice sized piece which I would say has been a great exercise using the tools.
Finish looks good. Would like to see more goblets

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Thanks chaps. That pretty much concurs with what I thought after putting it down for a couple of hours. Its too busy under the bowl rim. I reckon I should have curved the rim further round and lost that little mushroom shelf below the first bead. Its so dam difficult to resist sneaking in another detail when you've got the skew in your hand

I think cherry gets a lot darker with age and exposure to air doesn't it? This one was photographed very shortly after coming off the lathe so its very "young"

 

[Bodrighy]

Nice work Bob. If it is meant to be a medieval style then it is fine as it is. They were always 'too busy'. Tip about the thickness. If you shave the goblet towards the rim so that it gradually gets thicker as you go down it gives a nice thin edge but keeps the strength. Lovely to see a goblet that isn't shaped like an overgrown egg cup as so 'many are. Have look here for some of the shapes I do.

Pete

 

[Spindle]

Hi

You may find it beneficial to lay off the skew for beads - try rolling them with a beading and parting tool, I expect you'll find it easier to get round tops to your beads using one.

Regards Mick

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Nice work Bob. If it is meant to be a medieval style then it is fine as it is. They were always 'too busy'. Tip about the thickness. If you shave the goblet towards the rim so that it gradually gets thicker as you go down it gives a nice thin edge but keeps the strength. Lovely to see a goblet that isn't shaped like an overgrown egg cup as so 'many are. Have look here for some of the shapes I do.

Pete

wow Pete, there's some superb work in your gallery. But I see that not all your goblets are the very thin spindly kind so that's encouraging Plenty of inspiration amongst that lot though.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Hi

You may find it beneficial to lay off the skew for beads - try rolling them with a beading and parting tool, I expect you'll find it easier to get round tops to your beads using one.

Regards Mick

Thanks Mick. I have done that before and you're right it does help you to get round the top of the curve doesn't it. I didn't really spot the fact my beads were really oblong till after I'd finished, just got caught up in the moment I guess. But you're absolutely right, they need rounding.

 

[Bodrighy]

I do some goblets for re-enactment enthusiasts and the last thing they want is delicate things for quaffing their mead or whatever they knock back. LOL. Do an image search for goblets and chalices and you may be surprised at the variety of shapes that there are.

Pete

 

[Grahamshed]

It looks good to me Bob, though I would have to agree that I would prefer a simpler stem.
What gets me is the finish and/or photography. I have just finished a certain something ( you will probably see later today) that looks and feels as smooth as a babies bum but in the photo looks like a rough old weather beaten old weather beaten thing ( ala baldric ).
What did you sand the goblet down to ?

 

[Grahamshed]

Nice work Bob. If it is meant to be a medieval style then it is fine as it is. They were always 'too busy'. Tip about the thickness. If you shave the goblet towards the rim so that it gradually gets thicker as you go down it gives a nice thin edge but keeps the strength. Lovely to see a goblet that isn't shaped like an overgrown egg cup as so 'many are. Have look here for some of the shapes I do.

Pete

wow Pete, there's some superb work in your gallery. But I see that not all your goblets are the very thin spindly kind so that's encouraging Plenty of inspiration amongst that lot though.

+1 Pete. Some amazing stuff there.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

It looks good to me Bob, though I would have to agree that I would prefer a simpler stem.
What gets me is the finish and/or photography. I have just finished a certain something ( you will probably see later today) that looks and feels as smooth as a babies bum but in the photo looks like a rough old weather beaten old weather beaten thing ( ala baldric ).
What did you sand the goblet down to ?

I've just seen your egg Gray....excellent matey...I've never turned elm, it looks good enough to eat.......NOW I know you have a lathe I could tell from your description you weren't happy with the photography. I must say I have spent a fair amount of time getting the photography as good as I can with wood stuff. For what its worth here's the approach.

1. Use an SLR not an iphone or similarly useless piece of non specialised rubbish. If you don't have an SLR use the best camera you have. But don't make the mistake that an n-megapixel "telephone" takes good pictures!
2. Use a light box (inexpensive from a Jessops equivalent) so the background is uniform and appropriate.
3. Mount your SLR on a tripod and set a wide depth of field....say f11 or greater so you get fore and background in as much focus as you can instead of half the piece out of focus. You're on a tripod so take the shot on timer to totally eliminate camera shake for pin sharp images. It wont matter if the shutter speed is a second or more as you're on a tripod.
4. Manage the light carefully. I always do mine in as much daylight as I can get and then use fill in flash. If I'm feeling particularly anal I'll mount 2 lamps either side of the light box which give diffuse light on either side of the piece (just regular household lamps) and help to reduce shadows cast by the flash.

Sounds ominous but it really isn't. The principle is use a camera and not a phone, keep it dead still, pay attention to the light, avoiding shadows, pay attention to the background so the subject leaps out at you and not a load of screwdrivers on your bench, plus a bowl gouge!

Gotta go pick up a Chinese so we can talk about finishing at a later stage, its notoriously difficult for beginners and I think I can really help you there as I've been through all that over the last 18 months.

 

[Grahamshed]

I am not even going to ask how you know I have an I Phone
This is all going to get very expensive isn't it.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

not necessarily. I've always had an interest in photography so I had a lot of half decent kit anyway but you don't really need it all. You do need to go beyond the smartphone snapping mentality though and use at a minimum a dedicated camera even if its just a little hand held. It needs to be kept very still, pref a tripod or other known still location and you need a decent background that could be as simple as an old white cotton t-shirt, both under and behind the subject. Take it in natural light with minimal shadows if you can and put the camera on its landscape setting (that's your wide depth of field).

 

[Grahamshed]

I actually have a canon G10 somewhere. I will have to search it out for next month and build myself a little portable studio or some such.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

The other area you can focus on to keep scratching to a minimum is to always sharpen the tools directly before the last 1 or 2 cuts. And of course try and make them as smooth as possible. The fresh cut edge tends to remove the ridges left by the tools which are difficult to sand out (like on the ends of your easter egg). The ideal surface to start sanding on is a little rough of course but has no really obvious tool marks. The secret to achieving that apart from just practising the steadiness etc is freshly sharpened tools and a smooth tool rest. I sand my toolrest with a wooden block sander and I grind off the corners from the shanks of some of my chisels (skew in particular but also parting and beading). Smooth and sharp are the friends of minimal tool marks.

Then of course the progression through the grits. I think you know all this so granny and eggs but rule of thumb, never more than a 100 grit difference in the jumps. The next grit is only to sand out the scratches from the previous one. If your finger is getting hot, you're pressing too hard. It really is a light tough that's needed and if the piece allows power sanding then it always gets a better finish. I never stop below 400 grit and these days I also use the nyweb pads (green followed by purple followed by grey) which goes from 500 to 1200 grit. By the time you're done with them, the piece is starting to reflect light on its own with no finish! Then apply SS, piece not rotating, with the grain and fast so it doesn't catch. After about 2-3 mins I burnish that with a dry cloth to make sure its dry. Denib with white nyweb pad (very like 0000 wire wool but without the bits of metal sticking to the job) then SS again. Once that's dry I'll apply the wax, again stationary and then buff with a fresh paper towel and very lightly, moving constantly across the piece from one side to another. I'm always surprised by how little pressure need be applied to leave a good lustre. I repeat that as many times as I feel is necessary to build the shine I want but rarely more than twice as I don't like wood to look like plastic. I use Chestnut woodwax 22 but next time I'm in Axy I'll pick up the micro crystalline as I suspect its better, just never yet tried it but everyone here raves about it.

That procedure has evolved over 18 months with a combination of inputs including here and Mark Raby who I met last year at the D&M toolshow and who also demo'd at our turning club. He put me on to Nyweb or whatever the name of that 3m stuff is. (They look like kitchen pan scourers).

But the key is to remove the toolmarks (ridges in particular) before you commence sanding.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

This had disappeared overnight Graham so you might have missed it. Since it was written specifically for you I thought it worth bumping.

 

[Grahamshed]

Morning Bob.
Thanks for that, some good tips there. Can I claim that any ridges you are seeing are seems in the chocolate ?
Seriously though, if there are ridges then I am not seeing them, it feels lovely and smooth. If i get really persistent with the fingers then I maybe can detect a bit of a bump where the colour gets darker at the blunt end. Maybe changes in colour ( or shade ) indicate ridges ?
Further down the egg I can see rings of lighter colour ( shade ) but cannot feel anything at all.
With the next thing I make I will try sanding down to a much finer level and see if that improves things but detecting these 'ridges' and tool marks may be something I have to give more thought to.
Off to search for 'nyweb'
Cheers my friend.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Wet your work with hot water and allow to dry before sanding again - it'll show up any marks.