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.
This is a rather large bowl, roughly 310mm, about the size of a motorcycle brake disc, and about as heavy.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, this blank cost $49. I have another blank to turn -- Blackwood -- that's considerably larger, and cost $75. That plus a morning's work are the costs. Whether there's a demand for pricey bowls is something I also have yet to learn.
ReplyDeleteI remember the words of my late father, the soldier-truck driver-jeweler: If a piece doesn't move, keep raising the price until it does. Never failed him.
There are a number of fallen logs up the mountain, where I go to refill our drinking water (near the very top of the mountain, there's a spring that's been improved -- everyone local goes there for their water). Lots of leaf litter on the road, and recent storms have done a bit of natural weeding. I may have to learn enough botany that I can identify what sort of tree has carked it for the benefit of wood turners.
DeleteEnjoyed a visit from a friend who lives in England, and a fellow wood turner. He spoke of how you should really use wood chips to burnish the wax in, rather than the blue paper shop towels I use. You get little tiny bits of blue paper embedded in the flaws if you don't. I'm going to use that, because I've noticed that effect.
ReplyDeleteThanks, John Sawyer, was great to meet up!
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