More recent turnings (by Duncan)

[duncanh]

These have been turned over the last couple of months but I wait until I've got a few before taking photos...

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Size: 11.5 cm diameter
This used to be a crown green (I think) ball. It's made from lignum vitae and the white insert on top is the original ivory that was in there. There should have been one in the bottom as well but I chipped it removing it when trying to find the original centres it was turned between. Underneath both centres were still there, which made it nice and easy to true up
Hollowing was done held in a contracting dovetail using a sorby scraper with the tungsten tip (normal scrapers appeared to put too much force on the wood and weren't much faster anyway, and a bowl gouge was useless as it built up oily residue from the wood on the bevel too quickly). And I drilled out as much of the inner as I could because hollowing was taking ages.
The bottom had a small void which was filled with brass powder and superglue.
After sanding to 2500 grit there was hardly any need of a finish, but I applied some wax anyway.
The original ball had a black (laquer?) finish on it which was hard to remove and you can see this in the cracks on the full size image. I quite like the effect though.
I have plenty more of the balls so will be making more. Does anyone know the legality of using or selling items like this that have old ivory in them?

And now for something different for me... lightpulls


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The first 2 are made from recycled rosewood of some sort (I think) and about 12cm long - the wood was used as packing crates for some stone flags my dad bought which had been imported from India. It's pretty hard and takes an excellent finish but unfortunately I only have 3 lengths about 80cm long x 5cm square, and they are a bit cracked and have a few worm holes. They're juggling clubs in case you were wondering - one of my other hobbies is juggling.

The second 2 are lignum vitae without any finish. They're 6cm long

The third is beech. 8cm long.

more to follow next week...

 

[PowerTool]

Very nice - looking forward to the next installment

Andrew

 

[duncanh]

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Ash. 30cm diameter. Chestnut finishing oil
Made after watching a demo at our club on making nested bowls from a single piece of wood. The bowl and platter it sits on are still connected. In the demo the bloke (sorry, can't remember his name) went on to colour the centre bowl. What intend to try is colouring and piercing parts of the bottom bowl.

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Elm. 36cm diameter. Chestnut finishing oil and buffed
Made as a wedding gift for 2 friends who got married this weekend. The original plank was intended to a table but had sat unused in the shed for 2 years. I'm very happy with the result.

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Poplar I think. 17cm diameter, 9cm tall. Chestnut finishing oil and still to buff
This wood was bought part seasoned at the Horrogate show a couple of years ago and I started to turn it immediately. I wasn't experienced enough to know to turn it thin and so struggled with parts of the still wet blank and a very wet and apparently rotten bark inclusion. In desparation I roughed out the shape, hollowed out part of the centre, made a chucking point on each end and coated every surface in several coats of watered down pva. Not expecting much from it I threw it under a bench and forgot about it. I found it again a couple of months ago and still thought I wouldn't be able to salvage much. In the end I'm very happy with the result - it's my first use of brass powder and like almost everything about it. All it needs is a bit more work where the foot meets the main surface, but I can work on that next time.

more to follow...

 

[Alf]

Duncan, the figure in the pot is absolutely stunning - super job on bringing out its best. I may be picking your brains about your experiences of turning the lignum bowl. I picked up four myself recently and, well, let's just say it seemed a good idea at the time, but now... 8-[

Cheers, Alf

 

[colin macdiarmid]

lovely work, i had a look at you'r other work on your website really nice stuff

 

[duncanh]

Thanks for the comments. Next time I do a lignum bowl I try to remember to take photos at each stage. No idea when that may be though.
Here are the last of my recent photos...

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Beech fruit bowl. ~30cm diameter.
Made for a friend's birthday. Finished with Danish oil I think

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Purpleheart with ebony band pen and pencil set and a box for them.
A birthday present for another friend. Having read about the problems of colour fading with exposure to uv I tried letting high factor sun cream soak into the pens before polishing them. No idea if it works but I'm sure I found the idea somewhere on the net (must be true then!!)

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Spalted elm bowl. About 22cm diameter.

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A three point tool. Handle is about 20cm long. The steel is hss from one of the stands at the Harrogate show and has a flat badly ground into for the set screw to lock onto.. The ferrule was a plumbing fitting from B&Q - I just bought the one they had with the thickest wall for making a screw thread in. The tool works well and is very useful. The other end is now ground as a skew chisel

 

[DaveL]

Nice looking work Duncan.

You don't have the big picture viewing setup correctly, it asks for me to log in as you to see the picture. :?

 

[duncanh]

Sorry about that - the large images should be ok now

 

[DaveL]

That works a treat, thanks for sorting it out.

 

[duncanh]

I'm really getting into light pulls at the moment. It's good for using up even the smallest of offcuts. It's also great for practicing with the skew.

To make these I drilled a held the wood in my Nova pin jaws and drilled a countersink followed by a 3mm hole all the way through. I then used my pen mandrel with the rod almost all the way inside the headstock except for a small length long enough to hold one of the bushings. The countersink fits over this and it works well as a friction drive.
This was my first use of the spiralling/texturing tool and it went better than expected. It's still going to take a while to get the hang ot it though.

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Juggling clubs made from elm.
Middle left walnut I think
Middle middle unknown
Middle right ash
Bottom row pau amarillo textured and spiralled with the Sorby tool, sprayed with ebonising laquer and then returned
Bottom centre tiny ebony offcut
Maximum length 8cm

 

[DaveL]

Duncan,

Now I like those. The idea of using what in my shop would feed the wood burner to practice on and get things that nice is a good one. =D>

I am not a turner but an intrigued by the spiral lines, come on show us how its done. :-k

 

[PowerTool]

I am not a turner but an intrigued by the spiral lines, come on show us how its done. :-k

In my case,I can make them just by a quick accidental bite with the skew

Duncan - very nice work

Andrew

 

[duncanh]

Thanks for the comments.

Dave - the spirals are relatively easy to make if you have the right tool - look at http://robertsorby.co.uk/SorbyMedia/310HTexturingSpiralling2.wmv on the sorby website to see it in action. It's a little bit pricey but I think it'll be very useful.
In the previous 2 issues to the current one of Woodturning magazine there were a couple of articles on it's use

Duncan

 

[DaveL]

Duncan,

Thanks for the link, useful looking bit of kit.

Warning for anyone on dialup, the video file is ~ 60Mb :twisted:

 

[duncanh]

Here are some more.....

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Made from silver birch from my dad's garden. I thought I'd experiment with going thin.
Unfortunately the wood had several cracks in it so I had to remove more than I had originally planned. That's the reason for there only being a small amount of bark. It may look unsual but I like it like that.
16.5cm diameter, 7.5cm tall. varies from 1.5mm thick to 3mm at base.


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A juggling club pendant made from an old piano key, with a silver loop.
5.5cm long


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A few cufflinks. The ones on the left are from rosewood (I think - it was recycled from a packing crate from India). The others are from ebony and ivory recycled from old piano keys. The top 2 were a test which I won't repeat - ebony dust managed to get between the minute cracks between 2 layers of ivory.

About 2.5cm diameter


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Splated holly. Yes, I did say holly! This is possibly the most stunning piece of wood I've worked on. It came from a section of trunk that had a dead knot in it from where the spalting spread. The wood was still pretty wet when I turned it and it had a strong smell - very 'agricultural', so I'm guessing the spalting was still active.
The outside shape was a joy to turn but the inside was a real pain - I think the shape I chose was perhaps just beyond the limit of the Munro hollowing tool and I ended up making a small link to extend the reach. Also, the inside cut so well I was having to stop every 30 seconds to empty shavings.
The piece is now drying and warping quite a bit. I would have liked to dry it before turning but it was starting to split. I just hope it doesn't warp too much and start to crack.
This is the only piece with spalting that I have, but I've packed shavings from it round part of the trunk that wasn't spalted in the hope that it'll spread.

21cm diameter, 9cm high, 3.5cm opening. Unsure of thickness but it's probably not as much as it should be

 

[duncanh]

My lathe is still out of action and waiting for repair so all I've got to do is tidy the shed and take photos...

(all photos are clickable for larger versions)


16cm diameter, 6cm high burnt ash.
Experimental piece following up on a demo we had at the club. Originally the centre was covered in metal leaf but I didn't like it and my family hated it so I turned it away (very carefully using my modified chuck cole jaws with 10cm bolts rather that the original ~2cm ones). Unfortunately I left a tool mark at the left hand side but as it was just a test I'm not too bothered. This was the first piece I've burnt and I love the feeling of the surface.


28cm diameter Ash bowl/platter
The rim was burnt with a blow torch, the charring removed with a brush and sprayed with lacquer to seal it from dust. I then turned the inner and applied oil finish. The rim is a bit shiny for my liking, but I was just experimenting. The bottom is a nice shallow curve down to a foot that's about 1/3 the diameter. The base is slightly concave.


30cm diameter, 5cm high oak bowl
Another experiment for me - carving the top rim. People at the club thought the carving detracted from the wood but I like the effect that it creates when viewed from different angles - a kind of moire effect. Finished with oil but it still needs buffing. The base is the similar to the burnt ash one proportionally and in technique.


20cm diameter, 5cm high elm bowl
Yet another experiment that kind of works but would be better on light wood. Before I applied the finish this wood looked kind of boring so I used my new pyrography tool to highlight the grain on the top and on the foot. Or at least that's what I tried to do! At first the family hated it but some changed their minds. I'll try it with a lighter wood next time.


24xm diameter, 4cm high carved lime dish
Yet more experimenting. Lime is usually quite bland but good for carving so I was planning to carve the rim of this from the start. It turned out that this piece had some interesting grain.

More to follow when I can be bothered setting the camera up again including a stunning piece of ash

Duncan

 

[Paul.J]

Duncan.
First time i've seen those earlier turnings.
Fantastic pieces.Nice variation.
More please.
Paul.J.

 

[duncanh]

Thanks Paul. Some more of my older turnings can be seen here and here

Duncan

 

[Anonymous]

...pyrography tool to highlight the grain on the top...

Works for me Duncan, luv the undercut... and bowls that say 'touch me' :wink:

 

[Paul.J]

Duncan.
Fantastic again.I like the Leyandii piece.Justs a pity that it is Leylandii.
Just makes me feel i've got years to get to that sort of standard. :? All that practice Very nice.
Paul.J.