HWC members,
Just a reminder that we will meet this coming Saturday at the School woodshop. Don’t forget your SHOW AND TELL pieces and BRING BACKS if you won a bring back in September, or just want to donate something to benefit our treasury. At this time I am planning to have a meeting on November 12th at the school as well. I will not be able to lead a meeting after November until at least April of 2023. Just a suggestion, but I hope some of you will get together by arrangement during the winter months as there is a lot to be gained by visiting one another shops.
Last BRING BACK I won a piece of HONEY LOCUST donated by Sam Staffan. I thought about what to make out of the firewood chunk which was about 10” in diameter, green, and very heavy. I thought about a natural edge bowl as Sam said the bark really stays on nicely. I decided to get a LOT of small turnings out of the log and was so pleased with how it rough turned that I drove to Mackinac City to Sams shop and he gave me two more firewood chunks.
The multiple small hollow forms I turned from Sam’s wood were inspired by a very wide and very thick piece of MESQUITE slab wood that I got at a sawmill in Texas many years ago. I could have made one large platter or shallow bowl from it but decided to go for a dozen smaller pieces instead. I was just getting into selling hollow forms then so I wanted to choose a shape that was easily hollowed out with a straight round nose scraper. (Left photo shows their orientation within the slab and right photo the finished set of three which we kept)
I did not have a large bandsaw in Texas so I cut the blanks into vertical square cylinders with a chainsaw. Next I batch turned them into true cylinders with bark on top between centers. Next I bored them out with forester bits on a drilll press and glued the bottoms onto faceplated scrap blocks. I then trued up and refined the exteriors, hollow turned the interiors, sanded and seal coated them with shellac on the lathe. After rough turning I kept them in a cardboard box to slow evaporation and prevent cracking as I hollowed them individually. I recall getting a dozen pieces out of that slab. When I tried to sell them individually I was disappointed. I later learned that THINGS IN THREES sell really well. Now I only sell them in sets of three. A dremel with small sanding drum was used to make the wavy rim surface.
I will demonstrate how I cut these blanks, rough turn them, and hollow them out at our meeting this Saturday. My BRING BACK will be a set of three in HONEY LOCUST, so raid the cookie jar $ for the raffle! 😁
It would be great if one of our members could volunteer for the demo at our November 12th Meeting. I would very much appreciate this!
See you Saturday!
Steve Promo
Current President HWC
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