Cedar Lakes 10-14-09

My projects:


My first project was a walnut bowl turned from a 6x6x4 inch piece of wood. I had seen a video on YouTube in which the turner embellished the outside of the bowl with several lines - two burned into the wood and one in which a copper wire was glued and then turned to follow the flow of the bowl. The video can be seen as this link.
I have tried this embellishment a couple of times. Cutting the groove into the wood using a skew chisel gives the correct depth and width for the groove. This then determines if the wire will be far enough into the bowl to seat properly and not reveal too much of the CA glue used to adhere the wire to the wood. The other precise action is to cut the wire so that the wire appears to be a seamless.

Also that first day I made a paperweight. I had wanted to give something to the Coordinator at Cedar Lakes who allowed me to spend my week in their turning studio. I got the idea for a paperweight that included the state quarter embedded into a turning done in the wood of the state tree. In this case, the 2005 West Virginia quarter embedded in a turning of sugar maple.
I based my turning on a Fall, 2005 article in the American Woodworker magazine written by Nick Cook. The top of the piece holds the back side of the state quarter. Inside the piece of wood is a hollowed place for three 2 inch washers which add weight to the piece. I altered his suggested procedures only in relation to the bottom piece which conceals the washers. Where he suggests using a piece of plywood, I turned and parted off a 1/4" x 2-3/8" section of the maple, then drilled the 2-1/8" hole for the washers, and finally, enlarged the first 1/4" of the opening to accommodate the insert. In that way, the bottom of the piece can match the grain and color of the rest of the paperweight.



My final project for the first day was to create a mallet. Again, I used a YouTube video for ideas on creating the mallet. I used a 3" x 3" x 10" maple blank. The mallet is essentially tailored to fit the user's hand but it is roughly half the length for handle and the remainder for the mallet head. There are beads at each end of the handle and the handle is slightly convex. Again the thicknesses are really determined by the user's comfort. The head is beveled at both ends to eliminate sharp edges and the end of the head is coved so that is easily stands on end. This was a practice piece to try and become more comfortable using a skew. I did quite a bit of this project with that tool. It took a lot longer but the experience was valuable.
There are a series of five YouTube videos by Bob Hamilton that show this project in great detail. The first of the five is at this link.


Bob Hamilton also inspired my Tuesday and Wednesday project, a Christmas ornament. He has nine YouTube videos and several pictorial articles showing the steps to create the ornament body, interior decoration, top finial, and bottom finial. His updates correct some tolerances for the ornament body and offer some easier methods.
The woods I chose were paduak for the ornament body and maple for the decoration and finials. It was a challenging project for me in several ways. First, there is a lot of "turning air" since you round the ornament body after the holes are drilled in the sides. The illusion is that you can see through the interior of the spinning ornament. You have to look at the "shadow" of the outline in order to see where you are cutting. It was also challenging for me to turn such small pieces for the finials. The whole ornament is about five inches long and the bottom finial is half of that length. That bottom finial is less than 3/8 inch at its widest.
Each of these projects are finished with sanding sealer and friction polish except for the mallet which will mellow naturally with use.


My final project for Wednesday was to turn a large walnut platter. It is turned from a 10" round blank of claro walnut. The wood is just beautiful - a gradation from the gray-brown of the sapwood to the dark brown of the heartwood. I like this particular bowl since it has thin arching sides with a large supporting bottom ring.
My challenges here were to turn the thin sides with consistent thickness and to produce a relatively flat bottom.
I finished this platter with sealer, polish, and Bri-Wax. I will need to complete the bottom of the platter at home when I can use my vacuum chuck.


Tomorrow is another day of turning and I have not yet decided what I want to do. I have more of each of the preceding projects that I could repeat. I also brought pen making supplies, pepper grinder kits, and tea light blanks that I could do. I certainly won't run out of supplies before I run out of time tomorrow. I will need to clean the wood shop and pack up all my supplies since we will be leaving Friday morning to return home. This has been a real gift.