After making two large bowls from the walnut slab I had a small section left over and made this 4" walnut box with a maple lid. The box has some natural inclusions and they made me think of eyes so I added a nose to add character to the box. The nose is also made from maple.
The wood had some natural inclusions like bark that looked like eyes to me so I added a nose to give the box some character. I took a section of wood and turned a disk, cut a 1/4" wide section and parted off a ring. From the ring I cut a section and made the nose. Used a shape tool to get the shape of the bowl and then made sure the curve on the nose fit the outside of the bowl using a small drum sander.
This is the back side of the box. Finish is one coat of shellac and three coats of wipe on poly.
This is the box with the lid off and turned upside down showing the inside of the lid and you can see into the bowl. Bottom of the bowl has a two rings with a knurled surface between them. To turn the bottom of the bowl I expanded chuck jaws inside but put a large rubber band around the jaws to prevent damage to the wood.
At one of the club meetings I received a slab of walnut. First, I made an eight-inch bowl and added a maple bottom that I made into legs. That was published on 7 April on this site. That left me with a larger section of the slab. Below is a twelve-inch walnut bowl made from that section of the slab. On one edge there was a section of branch wood and I filled it with two-part epoxy so the lip would be smooth after using CA glue to stabilize it.
Archie Patterson
This is the top view of the 12-inch walnut bowl.
This is the bottom view of the 12-inch walnut bowl.
This the oblique view showing the area that had some fill added. Height is about 3 inches.
This section of the walnut slab has some great grain and color. In the center of the wood is the edge of a small hole. It does not look like a worm hole but where a twig once grew. My wife does not like me to fill these in as she feels it ads character. There are two more small holes visible on the bottom as well. Because my back does not let me work for more than a couple of hours at a time, I notice the shape changed some after each break.
After a winter of colds and not feeling like I wanted to do anything I wanted a project to get back into turning. My wife said a lot of my bowls were too small to be useful. I had a slab of Walnut I got from one of the club's Bring Back sessions so I cut off a section to make an eight-inch bowl. First, I ran the cut off slab thru a planner to get a smooth flat place to glue a mounting block to and then found the center for an eight-inch bowl and glued on the mounting block. Once I turned the base, I turned the work around and turned the inside using a chuck. I used three different Forstner bits to start the hollowing process. Below is the finished product.
Walnut bowl. Note the grain pattern on the inside of the bowl.
Added maple section over the top of the walnut mounting block.
I mounted the mouth of the bowl in rubber jaws and turned the bottom of the mounting base to about 2.5 inches. I then made a maple section to fit over the mounting base. It looked like a cup and fit that over the mounting base. Once glued in place I turned the maple to reveal the mounting block in the center. I positioned the chuck so I could turn the work 90 degrees and lock it in place, and used a sanding drum on a drill extension so I could cut each of the curved sections in the maple base. This gives the effect of it having four legs. After a coat of shellack, I added three coats of wipe-on-polly. The inside was done while the work was still in the chuck. For the outside, I mounted the work against a friction plate using a section of wood cut to fit in the base to push the work into the plate and center it. This allowed me to apply the finish away from the lathe and once dried remount the work and run steelwool over it between coats.
The Hiawatha Woodturner's Club meet at the Saint Ignace High School wood shop on 12 November 2022 with Show & Tell, Bring Backs and a Demonstration by Steve Promo.
The following were Show & Tell items.
A bow that looks like a basket with a brass top with a fly on it.
Left a box of box elder with maple lid. Right a box of zebra wood with a maple lid.
Top: A box turned on a cedar post with lid on. Below with lid off.
A large waste basket.
To cut disks from leather or cardboard you take a hole cutter and grind the teeth off and sharpen the edges. Remove the center drill and you can cut disks.
Bring Back items are shown below.
A lot of raffle tickets were sold to increase chances of getting the bowl in the center. In back is a slab of hard wood, four sections of 4x4 ash, behind the bowl is a half cut tree fork with feathering grain. Front is section of a tree with a small section of burl, then a small bowl.
Tom Stawiarski had the winning ticket that allowed him to claim the bowl as his prize. Good choice Tom.
Shop Demonstration.
Steve promo was contracted to turn 150 spindles for a hotel on Mackinac Island. In the video he talks about his approach to turning the spindles and then demonstrates how to turn a wood splitter handle.
The meeting was held at the St Ignace High School Wood Shop.
At the start of the meeting the member describe the items they have brought in for the Show and Tell describing how they made it and any problems they encounterd.
In this example the low right four items were brought in by Archie Patterson. All are made from Box Elder. The large item in the lower left blew up on Archie when he put rubber jaws on the outside of the thin lip and started to turn the bottom and there was a catch. The stress broke the bowl and it flew apart. The red item was Sam Steffen's vase that was to look like a pumkin and is made of resin and wood. The small item center right is also from Sam and has a interior ring of contrasting wood for the lid to sit on.
This item was made by Steve Promo from a block of wood brought in by Sam. the walnut ring was added to a grove cut into the wood.
The item on the left is from Jim Rutlidge and is the completed bowl he started at last months demo and looks like a basket. The three items ont he right are from Steve Promo and illustrates that grouping items in sets of three to five will earn a larger price.
Jim Rutlidge brought these items in. On the left is a vase that looks like a basket weave, next in is a Spalted Ash bowl. The boxed items Jim used in used talk. (see video belwo)
Steve Promo brought this in to illustrate how he used color to add character to his items.
This also a Bring Back time during the meeting where the club auctions off items brought in by member. All proceeds go to the club treasury.
There was a large section of Walnut and a large section of hard maple that was auctioned off along with two of the Show and Tell finished items.
During the meeting Jim Rutledge talked about how he did reversed center turning. Below it a video of his comments. View video here:
Steve Prom did a classroom talk about cutting and turning multiple items from a slab of wood and then demonstrated the process from cutting to turning in the wood shop. View video here:
It was a great meeting with many helpful insights from the members. A good point to remember is Spalted Wood contains a fungus that creates the pretty lines in the wood. Wear a mask and dispose of the mask filter and all shavings and unusable scrap wood to get the fungus out of your shop. Be Safe.
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!
The club met on 17 September, a week later than scheduled because a conflict in personal schedules. There were some nice Bring Backs and Show & Tells in the classroom for the meeting. After the classroom meeting Jim Rutledge show his technique for turning bowls that look like woven baskets. Attached are some videos taken during the meeting.
Steve Promo talks about the Bring Backs:
Sam Staffan talks about his Show & Tell items:
Steve Promo talks about his Show & Tell items:
Jim Rutledge classroom talk on how he makes bowls that look like woven baskets and then takes the group into the shop for a demonstration of his technique with samples of his finished work. You can see the video at: https://youtu.be/9d4FmV3kKBY
