December Woodturning Challenge - POST YOUR ENTRIES HERE

[henton49er]

Please post your entries for the December Woodturning Challenge on this thread.


The December Challenge is for a pestle and mortar. Richard Findley has kindly agreed to judge this month’s Challenge, and there will be a plaque for first place, kindly made for us by forum member Daven. Many thanks to both!! =D> =D> =D>

Challenge Requirements: Pestle and Mortar

This month’s rules are:-

1. The Challenge is open to anyone and everyone.
Entries must be new and made specifically for the Challenge.
Entries must be made of wood which must be turned on a lathe using woodturning tools.
2. The entry must be fit for purpose i.e for grinding and crushing hard spices such as peppercorns as well as gently bruising leafy herbs.
3. The wood used and its finish must be food safe.
4. Segmented turning and piercing are not allowed for this challenge
5. Carving, colouring, pyrography and texturing are allowed to the outside of the mortar (the bowl), and for the handle of the pestle only, and the judge must be able to see your turning skills! The inside of the mortar and the “business end” of the pestle must not be carved, coloured, pyrographed or textured.

Please post three images of your work together with details of the wood used, the tools and methods used to make it and any key dimensions.

Images needed:-

1 showing a general view of your entry with the pestle inside the mortar
1 view of the inside of the mortar with the pestle beside it (top view)
1 view of the bottom of the mortar and the business end of the pestle.
A fourth picture may be added (but is not compulsory) if needed to show any other interesting details of your entry.

Image size - please use image size 640 x 480 0.3mp, as in previous challenges

Please upload your pictures and description between 10pm on the 27th December and 10pm on the 29th December.

Please also send me a PM giving me your own opinions of 1st, 2nd and 3rd places amongst the entries (other than your own) between 10pm on 29th December and 10pm on 31st December (for me to compile the entrants’ scoring).

 

[dennisk]

Mortar in brown oak and pestle in bubinga. Mortar blank mounted on a screw to rough out and sand to finish and 5 coats of DO. Turned a recess at the same time to remount, which I did and then turned the top end, sanded and DO as before. Pestle done between centers to get a stub to remount into pin jaws. Then turn and sand and DO and then part off. Wrap business end of pestle with stretch wrap and tape and remount into pin jaws and clean up the hand end and sand and DO. Buff up on Oneway buffing system. Then flew to FLorida for vacation with the family and forgot to measure it. I think the mortar is about 3" by 3" and the pestle is about 3 1/2" by 1 1/8" or so. Used roughing gouge and spindle gouge for both and scraper to clean up the mortar inside. Thanks for looking and supporting the challenge, and Happy New Year to everyone.
Got back late last night, mortar measures 4 3/8" high by 3 3/4" at the base and pestle is 5 1/4" by 1 1/2", guesses were way off, sorry.

 

[KimG]

Made from Olive ash and Ash. I have gone with an ergonomic and practical design, the Mortar is shaped so as to be easy to hold onto while stuff is being pounded or ground by the Pestle, and also has an enclosed type neck to help contain the crushed material. The Pestle has a broad base to facilitate a good wide surface area for crushing and grinding as well as a curve that closely matches the interior of the mortar, the top end is similarly shaped to make a comfortable fit in the hand, hopefully making it a kitchen tool that will be used rather than looked at!

I used several tools to make this as the undercut inside proved tricky to get an even curve to match the pestle. 1/2" Bowl gouge, 3/8" bowl gouge, carbide scraper, 3/8 spindle gouge, skew chisel and 1/2" spindle gouge. Sanded to 400 outside and 320 inside. The outside and one third down the inside is Shellac, the rest is Chestnut's food safe oil finish. Pestle has a Shellac finish till the pounding end which is also the food safe oil.

Dimensions:
Pestle 160mm long X 50mm at the business end.
Mortar 90mm deep X 115 wide.

 

[barrywat]

Mortar is apple I think, had some roughed out blanks that were not marked, pestle is beech. Wanted to create a mortar with a wide base to give stability and possible use one handed (cooks are usually doing more than one thing at once). Inside and outside were turned mounted in chuck mostly with 3/8 th bowl gouge and finished with really light cuts with a scraper and sanded to 600, remounted on a scrap cone and supported by tailstock to remove tenon. Pestle was mounted between centres ans shaped using a spindle gouge turning the business end to shape first and then the handle end, sanded to 600 again parted off and hand sanded the finish the handle end. both are finished with mineral oil.

Dimensions: Mortar 11cm wide at base x 7cm high. Pestle 10.5cm hong, 3.5cm at business end and 4cm accross handle.

 

[heatherw]

You would not believe how long it took me to make this. I haven't touched the lathe since March- in fact I had to remove March's aborted Challenge entry to make this one. I seem to have forgotten everything I knew.

Still. I wanted to make a modern looking entry, and I'm still using up my sycamore tree -I didn't have anything else big enough. The mortar was made mostly with the bowl gouge, I did use a small scraper on the inside as well. The pestle was made with roughing gouge, parting tool and spindle gouge. It is remarkably ergonomic for the shape, the inside is semihemispherical and fits nicely to the end of the pestle.

I sanded down to 400 grit and burnished with shavings, which should be more than sufficient for a mortar and pestle. At 150grit I raised the grain and resanded, as this piece will probably be washed and it will remain mumch smoother like this. I finished with walnut oil, which I haven't tried before, I couldn't find the liquid Vaseline which I would have used in preference. It all turned out very smooth and tactile, and I really like the spotty look on the end of the pestle - the sycamore is slightly spalted.

Photos were shot with the ipad. I've left the proper camera in the UK. I will now try to load the photos from the ipad, don't know whether this is even possible?

Sorry about the quality, it would help if slightly larger files were allowed. Edit: I forgot to put the measurements. The pestle is about 13cm long, and 4cm at the widest, The mortar is about 15cm in diameter and 9 or 10cm high.

 

[Dalboy]

The mortar is made from Beech and is turned using a roughing gouge and spindle gouge on the outside, the inside is drilled to depth and turned with a bowl gouge. Then it is sanded to 320grit.
The pestle is again made from Beech and turned using a roughing gouge and skew chisel, also sanded to 320grit.
Both are finished with food safe oil.
The design is kept simple in as much as to help with the ease of cleaning and the pestle is designed so that the end user can use it either way round.


Measurements are

Mortar 4 1/2"tall and 4" across, the bowl is 3" deep.
Pestle is 6" long and 1 3/8" at the thickest end and 1" at the narrow end.

 

[SteveF]

both parts made from ebony
found that ebony is tough going ..was a challenge all on its own

the mortar is about 2 1\2" round
turned and hollowed using bowl gauge
sanded to 400 and a light coat of walnut oil

pestle turned with bowl gouge between centres
i got the "business" end done and used the mortar as a jam chuck
turned other end and finished off the lathe to 400 again with a coat of walnut oil

Steve

 

[andy43]

Both parts are made from Elm, the pestle is 120mm long and 45mm at its widest. The mortar is 70mm tall and 125mm wide, inside diameter is 100mm wide by 45mm deep. Tools used were a spindle gouge, bowl gouge and a skew chisel and lines burn't in with copper wire, then a few coats of olive oil.