Stock for Devon Guild of Craftsmen

Just finished 6 colored Bowls stock for the Devon guild of Craftsmen.
These are all Sycamore approx thirteen inches wide

I have just started another six to keep my replacement stock up for the Gallery's I supply

Gilding with Adam Cornish

Yesterday I spent the Afternoon with Adam Cornish having a taster session on gilding
In the new year Adam will be doing a Masterclass on gilding and how Gilding techniques can enhance woodturned pieces.This will be a class for a limited amount of Students as there is quite a bit to take in and the course will involve Gilding of Gold and other Metals.
Here are two small Silver Birch Burr Bowls that I Gilded yesterday

 This Bowl is Gilded with mixed leaf

 This Bowl is Gilded with copper

Paul and Jax

Today my Students were Paul and Jax although they are both regular Students they have never been here together before.
I like to teach two Students at a time if possible as I actually find it goes a lot smoother than one to one no so intense and you can end up having a lot of fun and today was one of those days.
Paul and Jax worked well together and turned out some really nice work as you can see from the picture

Ed Brooks

Yesterday my Student was Ed who was here as a present from his Wife Fiona.
Ed is a bit unsure whether he will take up Woodturning as a hobby yet but I think he will he obviously is quite capable of making a good Turner.
Ed has a couple of Mates that are Tree Surgeons so he can get plenty of free wood so that is a bonus.
As you can see Ed turned a beautiful Sycamore Bowl.

Alister is Back

ALister was here a few weeks ago for a taster day and to see if he wanted to take up Woodturning as a hobby
He obviously enjoyed it because he has been out and bought all the equipment that I recommended and has come back for a second lesson.
It is always nice to see that you have converted someone to be a Woodturner.
As you can see Alister turned a very respectful Sycamore Bowl and Christmas tree.

Very well done Alister I look forward to seeing you and your Turnings in the future

Devon wood processed

From this pile of wood I managed to process over 30 roughed out beautiful Bowl blanks

A builders Bag of Firewood and 16 bags of shavings for a local Ladies Chickens so nothing is wasted

And a Builders bag of Firewood  

And sixteen bags of shavings for a local Ladies chickens

Some close ups of the roughed out Bowl blanks 

Roughing out tomorrow

Spending the day roughing out bowls tomorrow the wood I got from Devon earlier in the week.For them that dont know what roughing out bowls is it is taking a wet or recently cut down piece of wood cutting it into a round then turning it to an oversize rough Bowl.This allows the wood to dry a lot quicker than it would as a thick round.The first picture is a Bowl blank about 75mm thick and it would take about 3 years to air dry enough to turn to a finished Bowl.The second Pic is a roughed out Bowl and the thickness has been reduced to about 30mm so will dry enough to Finnish in half the time.A tree will have anything up to 50% water and we need to get the water content down to about 12% to be low enough to create a finished bowl and this is a way of shortening the drying time

Update on Devon Wood

Further to my post below I have now cut the Wood I got from Devon into Bowl Blanks.
The figuring in this Wood is stunning as you can see from my updated Pics below

 All ready to cut into Bowl blanks

Cut into Rounds to Make Beautiful Bowls when roughed out and dry

 How about that for Figuring

 I thought some of the Blanks were to thick for what I wanted so what seems like a safe way to cut them in half was to do it on the Lathe with a Chainsaw.I fixed them on a Face plate and put the indexing pin in to stop them spinning.I think two thinner bowls are going to be worth more than one thick one.

 I cut just under half way through the n turned them so as not to get the saw near the Lathe bed.

 This is the result twice as many nice blanks

 A full Builders bag off of cuts for my Granddaughter Ali and Partner Reg's fire next winter

Devon Wood

Cutting up a Beech tree in Devon today with Adam Cornish apparently it has got lots of ripple so that should be interesting.Looking forward to it I love cutting up wood it is always a bit of a mystery what you will end up with.I try and remember to take some pics

The Beech turned out to be beautifully Spalted Sycamore and we also had some lovely Turkey Oak.
Some pictures from today not sorted just as the came.