Learning the Turning #16

Skipping the Busted Bits

A bit of Huon Pine

In 1616 AD, Officials in Württemberg charge astronomer Johannes Kepler with practicing "forbidden arts" (witchcraft). His mother had also been so charged and spent 14 months in prison. (Wikipedia).

About the same time, the tree that this bowl came from was a healthy seedling.  Huon Pine is like that. Grows only in Tasmania, and it's one of the hardest "softwoods" I've ever encountered.  Turns beautifully.  Takes the term "slow growth" to extremes, though, and I treat it with respect.

The lighting was the same in both shots, each with the bowl turned 90 degrees from the other, and indeed it does look like two entirely different bowls.  The colours approximate what I see, too.  The view from where a bit of "live edge" is showing (bark showing, considered a bit trendy among turners.  I don't know, just think it's pretty) is quite a bit lighter.

This one has a wax finish, and for the first time I've used John Sawyer's hint of using handfuls of wood shavings to burnish and melt the wax in.  I like the idea, and there's no shortage of wood shavings on the floor.

The large, expensive and troublesome Blackwood blank that sang the end of the banjo posted previously, failed due to a very brittle edge, and the fact that the blank was so out of balance I could never get it round enough to make a straight starting cylinder.  Different densities within the wood.  I also found it a bit disconcerting trying to turn with the lathe trying to walk around the workshop as I worked.

So this is bowl #16.  Blank #15 is having its number retired, in gratitude to the rather expensive lessons I learned from it.  No photos of #15, it's in the bin.

Learning the Turning

"A Bit of A Catch"

Catches aren't quite so scary once you discover you tend to do more damage to the blank than you do to yourself.  This happened when I was turning the largest bowl to date, a fairly massive chunk of blackwood with (as I discovered) a nice hidden knot.  Knowing what a knot is (it's just a a piece of branch) I wonder how it managed to embed itself.  I'll leave that speculation for another day, I suppose.

Anyway, this big Blackwood blank was spinning fairly fast for its size -- around 1000rpm -- and was actually moving the lathe around on the floor, and that was after I'd gotten it roughly cylindrical.  I'd gone to a square high-speed steel scraper, and the knot decided it really liked the scraper and wanted to eat it, which it did.

The blank came to a noisy dead stop, stalled the lathe, and I slapped the off switch.  The tool rest looked a little wonky, and I blew the dust off and found I wasn't going to be doing any more turning today.  Off to speak to the spares guy at Carbatec, then.

Learning the Turning #14

Claret Ash

I think I'm still making progress.

This one has a wax finish.  I'm finding that in some cases, there is no amount of re-cutting or 80-grit sanding that can take out certain "turning marks", where the grain is not very dense at all.  Rather than spend the extra hour with coarse sanding, I'm thinking I may just have to accept that not all parts of a good blank are hard enough to take a good fine polishing sand.  Great is the enemy of good, I know, but I will continue to either figure out ways around it, or learn to accept it*.

The wax finish is from a stick wax branded "Shithot Wax".  You apply the stick to the turning bowl, then take a blue paper shop towel and burnish it in.  The wax melts and the finish is more durably shiny than the oil I've been using before.  The other bowls are not quite as shiny now that the oil has soaked in and dried;  I'm up for giving them another coat, looks like.

I am hoping to find a good wax finishing product that doesn't contain beeswax (certain person close to me has a bee product allergy) so I'm thinking solid carnuba wax might be the go.  Automobile paste wax perhaps?  Have to try that.

Blanks are getting fairly expensive;  I'm going to have to start selling these things.  They won't be particularly cheap, as it takes the energy of one day to make these (several hours all up) and a few other bits.

*Or accept the fact that I'm just a bit too lazy, and need to lift my game.  Room to improve, room to improve.

Learning the Turning

Oops

Lesson learned:  When drilling the pilot hole, allow for the depth of the chuck mortise.

I wasn't particularly happy with the blank, to be honest.  It had quite a few grub-castings holes to be cleaned out (I was planning to turn that into a feature, for a yarn bowl).  It seemed very difficult to sand any flaws out, and the flaws weren't particularly interesting.

On to the next blank, then.