More recent turnings (by Duncan)

[Paul.J]

PeteHoneyman wrote

sorry - I was looking for the 'work for critique' thread but obviously didn't find it !

Pete.
If you want your work up for critique,put it on a new,seperate post with an heading asking for critique.
Chas (CHJ) will then put it on the critique thread.
HTH.

 

[duncanh]

Should have said - the stitches are leather bought from HobbyCraft. I should really find somewhere I can buy it in bulk.

I used a lacing pattern from here

 

[DaveL]

That is a nice looking bowl and the stitching adds to it, I like that a lot.

 

[duncanh]

I have a carrier bag full of salvaged piano keys and they're just the right thickness for pens. This photo shows the variation in colour that you get in the ebony.
Looking at them now I should have switched the colour of the fittings on the 2 outside ones as that would have matched the wood better.
Finished with melamine lacquer.



I bought this blank at Harrogate a couple of years ago and it's been sat under my work bench since then until I got some inspiration for the shape.
It's burr chestnut. 19cm diameter
The finish is Fiddes hard wax oil
I decided to try it after seeing Tracey Owen use a similar product at a demo. It's a little thick so I've thinned it with white spirit. It builds up nicely and only needs a couple of coats. It gives a nice smooth finish. It's aimed at use on flooring so durable and can also be used on kitchen worktops, so I assume it's food safe.



I don't do much pyrography as I'm not much of an artist (unfortunately, despite both my parent being art teachers!). This was requested so I thought I'd give it a go.
It's sycamore, 26cm diameter with the same hard wax finish.



I've never done any traditional style salt/pepper grinders but, again, these were requested
They're sycamore, 23cm and I'd been saving the lovely figured wood for such a project. The black in the top of one of the is from a piano key. The finish is chestnut lacquer. I've used the Crushgrind mechanism

 

[CHJ]

I like the elegant lines of the pens Duncan, the ebony certainly enhances the effect.

The frog platter for me has just the right amount of embellishment to balance the blander wood.

Chestnut is one of those woods I find very hard to pass by whenever I come across it, never seen a piece that does not have some interesting grain characteristics just waiting to be promoted.

Mills look well executed and finished, although personally for some reason I am not smitten by the traditional balls and beads style and prefer a more modern simplistic form. Chestnut is a good choice though for making them stand out from the crowd, or should I say 'Run of the Mill' examples often seen.

 

[Jenx]

Hi Duncan, - once again, your work just astounds !
For 'not being much of an artist', that Frog is superb !

Every time I catch sight of your stuff, and Cornucopia George, Chas, and some of the other guys, I'm convinced I should throw my gouges in the skip

Some great pieces there, once again
Lovely work 8)

 

[TEP]

Some really nice work once again Duncan, can't say much more, I really like it all.

 

[Bodrighy]

Again some nice pieces there Duncan. Simple but better for it in my opinion. By the way, how do you get the black marking in the grooves? I've tried a few ways but never seem to be able to get an even line as you have

Pete

 

[Paul.J]

More beautiful work again Duncan which is always a pleasure to view
I like the SnP.I like the swirly grain effect on the bottom.
Lovely looking piece of Chestnut too.
Love the frog.Will this be an on going effect with a set in mind :?:

 

[PowerTool]

Another nice selection of quality work

Andrew

 

[duncanh]

Thanks for all the replies

Chas - previously I've turned more modern designs for grinders (not many though) and thought I wouldn't like these. After holding them I admit that they feel nicer in the hand and the traditional shape is growing on me. The reason I haven't done this type in the past is partly down to lack of confidence in my spindle turning and being afraid of them not matching.

Jenx - I cheated with the frog and just found some clipart on Google.
Don't be dispirited by the work you see - it's meant to inspire.

Pete - for the black lines in the face of work I've tried a few methods. The one that I've found works best is to turn a groove, turn up the speed and hold a thin piece of fibreglass against the wood. Maplins sell the fibreglass for making circuits. I bought some years ago and etched off the copper so I could make boomerangs with it. A turner at our club uses some sort of thin plastic from kitchen work surfaces (I think). Both of these will probably be giving off nasty gases so be careful.
For the line round the edge I used standard wire burners

Duncan

 

[Woodmagnet]

Excellent work Duncan, especially the platter. 8)

 

[Jenx]

Don't be dispirited by the work you see - it's meant to inspire.

It does a wonderful job of doing just that . :wink: 8)
Its great.
As are many, many of the other examples of work posted by people... fantastic !
I find reading everything written and 'shown' by the guys (and ladies ) here extremely helpful and a huge source of inspiration to try things out.
-- Some work, some ermmm.. not so much !, but the learning process is about as much fun as you can have wth your clothes on... its brilliant

 

[duncanh]

A lignum vitae vase...


Height is 16cm, diameter 13cm

This lump of wood has been sat under my bench since I first tried to turn it years ago. It came with a load of wood and tools that I bought and had already partly been shaped. When I first got it I tried using a gouge but it just wouldn't cut well and I gave up.
I came across it again whilst tidying up. I gave it another go and this time tried scraping and freshly sharpened gouges. The inside was hollowed with sorby multi-tipped scrapers and shear scraped. The inside finish isn't as smooth as the outside but finishing was a real pain due to the oily wood.

I ended up wet sanding lubricated with paste wax and went down to 2500 grit. I then made the mistake of buffing but this generated a little too much heat so there are a couple of discoloured patches.

The wood has several cracks in the top which I tried filling with brass powder and glue. Unfortunately this mostly didn't stick so I turned most of it away and just left the cracks. There are a few surface cracks on the outside as well that I couldn't hide or accentuate.

 

[Bodrighy]

Lovely looking piece Duncan (as if we'd expect anything lwess from you) Must confess I am a fan of these thick walled vessels. Lignum Vitae is supposed to be very oily isn't it? Maybe this is why it wouldn't stick. Last time I used any it was at school when I got a piece out of the wood store thinking it looked really attractive. The response from the teacher wasn't quite so attractive when he saw me with it on the lathe :lol: Haven't been able to find any since I started turning properly and there doesn't seem to be any growing in the woods around me.

Pete

 

[duncanh]

Thanks Pete, but it isn't a thick walled vessel - the walls are ~5mm thick throughout (but thicker at the base for stability). Or are you saying that 5mm is thick and that I should be aiming for less ;-)

Yes, lignum vitae is very oily and when I've used it before I haven't even applied a finish - the sheen after 2500 grit was incredible. It feels silky smooth and everyone enjoys handling it.
The oil causes a problem by building up on gouge bevels if you rub them too hard and will build up on the edge of a scraper.

According to Wickipedia it's listed under CITES and possibly endangered.
You may be able to buy it in specialist shops - the last time I was in Keenleysides. Northumberland
they had a fair sized block in but I can't remember the cost (do they need a license to sell CITES listed timber?).

If you want to try turning it your best bet would be to get hold of some old wooden bowls (crown green type) as they were usually made of this. They crop up on Ebay.

 

[Bodrighy]

Ok Ok so I didn't read your message properly. I was going by the looks of it. and had registered the bit about being hollowed out. I am in no position to say 5mm is too thick.

I read 'vase' and stopped. Blame it on the Christmas spirit.....

Still like it even if it that thin :lol:

Pete

 

[Paul.J]

Very nicely done Duncan
Lovely finish as usual.
The grain pattern looks Lovely

 

[duncanh]

I thought I'd post something that shows just how much wood can warp when drying.



13.5cm bark-to-bark, 2mm wall thickness

This is made from the trunk of a smallish American Red Oak which I helped cut down whilst clearing non-native trees from a wildlife trust site. It was turned wet and I used a lamp behind the wood to get an even thickness.

Before drying the top was flat and it's now dropped about 20degrees on one side.


The whole trust project is very interesting, and will hopefully lead to a managed coppicing site. Last week we planted 200 hazel saplings and there's going to be elm and other native species added over the coming weeks (over 2000 new trees in total).

 

[johnny.t.]

When I have something warp it always looks awful but that looks great, like you made it that way.
Always good to hear about proper native tree planting, our local woods was apparantly mainly sweet and horse chestnut, oak and beech but they felled the lot to farm pine in the 50's only leaving one huge oak in the middle, known as the grandfather oak. A huge shame.

JT