Intro, and a random pen

[Kaideejee]

Evening all. New to the forum and thought I'd say hello and add a pic of tonight's project. I've been turning now for about 15 months, doing mostly pens since this January. I have a small Axminster lathe and I've done a few bowls and lots of tealight holders. This isn't my best pen but it's topical . Multi coloured ply from Axminster, chestnut friction polish, done entirely with an Axminster 1" oval skew.

I'll mostly be hanging out around the edges but thought I'd wave first.

Cheers

Kev

 

[Gary Morris]

Hi Kev and welcome, lovely looking pen. Looking forward to seeing some more pics.

Gary

 

[Kaideejee]

Thanks Gary. I have pics of pretty much everything I've turned, good and bad, on Facebook but at some point I'm going to put then on my website or blog and I'll probably put a lot more on here. Having been through some of the competition results I may keep some of the uglier pieces to myself ;-)

 

[Kaideejee]

This is my next most recent piece, just for a bit of variety. Turned from a big lump of apple with a knotty barky chunk on one edge. The bowl is quite shallow as I didn't want to hit the dark bit from the inside. I'm still trying to get the hang of hollowing bowls.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

What was apple like to turn? I've just been given some but not used it yet, its pretty hard to cut on the bandsaw though

 

[EnErY]

nothing wrong with ugly at least its your own we must start somewhere and im at that point myself that is a nice pen unusual but I like it
Regards
Bill

 

[Kaideejee]

Bob - the Apple was quite nice to turn though the piece was big and heavy and my lathe was jumping around a bit. It did keep pushing the gouge outwards which is why I didn't dare to do the wall any thinner. I think I need to do some simpler shallower bowls to get the hang of thinner wall hollowing but I like the more vertical sides. I found that turning the speed down helped me a lot.

Enery - thanks and yes we all make our own path I suppose. My wife usually judges the ugliness of stuff. If it goes on display or she keeps a pen then it's not ugly while my only banksia nut attempt so far is undeniably horrible and was consigned to the back of the shelf...