Walnut Hollow Form

I have not done anything of much interest for a day or two so i thought I would show you this Hollow form.There was a time when I did lots of HF and this Walnut HF is one of my earlier ones .I still have this one and I am very attached to it so it lives in my display cabinet

Simonds second day

I worked Simon hard today and instead of a simple bowl today he did an Oak bowl.
Not a simple bowl this one includes scorching and  colouring.
The important thing for the two days was to get Simon to do the various cuts automatically and without having to give them too much thought.
This is the big advantage of doing two days the second day reinforces what you learnt the first day.
This one is more of a platter really as it is not very thick.
Here are pics taken throughout the day.

Not a terribly good picture 

 14" x 2" Oak blank held on with screw chuck and tail stock support

 Shaping up the bottom with a pull cut

 Bottom shaped and being sanded with the Simon Hope Pro Sander

 Sanded to 1000 G and creating a recess.I normally always prefer a spigot but not on Oak it is known to have the spigot sheer of so a recess is safer

 Recess created and a bit of fancy texturing added

 Blank reversed and the rim being sanded ready for scorching and colouring

Green bin perfect for holding blanks for scorching.I use Map gas for scorching because it is hotter than Propane and works quicker therefore avoids distorting the piece.

 All scorched and although it is difficult to see Simon is removing the soft grain with a Bronze bristle brush.

 Applying Martin Saban smiths Purple coloured wax

 Rim well coloured

 Removing the bowl centre and taking care to check for depth as this is quite a shallow bowl.

 Scraping inside of bowl to remove any small tooling marks prior to sanding.

 Sanding wit Simon Hope Pro sander

That's it Bowl completed we then remove spigots from yesterdays Bowls

 Sanding base of yesterdays bowls

 Not a bad two days work very well done Simon

Simon's two day Bowl turning course

Simon is here for a two day Bowl turning course before he buys all of the equipment.
Simon has never done any turning before and had the good sense to get some Tuition and advise before buying anything.
Today Simon has made a list of stuff to buy mostly from Axminster tools and he has turned two very nice Bowls.
One is Sycamore with a coloured and textured rim the other is a very nice bit of Cherry.
Simon is here tomorrow and will be making a large bowl.

A few random pics taken throught the day.

Practicing What I preach

I am always preaching that Tuition is a short cut to good results with Woodturning.
In the past I have had Tuition from six of the top turners in the country. This is all part of my desire to keep improving and extending my knowledge..
Today I have had further Tuition from Paul Hannaby  https://www.creative-woodturning.com/  in the casting and applications of Pewter in Woodturning.
Paul did a Demo in our Club on Pewter work but unfortunately although it was something I had always wanted to get involved it I was unable to make the meeting and missed the Demo.
Recently I have done a couple of pieces that Incorporated Pewter but really I was working blind and I could see there is a lot more to it than I realised.

I spent about half a day with Paul and really enjoyed it as well as learning a hell of a lot.
I took a few pics but as I was getting Tuition it was a bit difficult to do a really detailed WIP so when I have had some more practise I will do a detailed WIP .
Here are a few pics to go on with.

Goncalo Alves Blank mounted on screw chuck

Pewter poured into pre prepaired mould fixed to lathe and face trued up

Checking the Pewter rim for a good fit to rim of Bowl

 Glue applied and Rim put under pressuse to allow glue to dry.

 Finnished Bowl.

Wood and Pewter 11

Following on from my recent Wood and Pewter Sculpture I have started a second piece.
I have taken pics of the prosses I have used as follows.

This is Turned from a 16" x 2" Oak woodturning Blank.
I random carved it with a Arbortech carver they cut the slots at random on the Bandsaw.

As you can see from this pic it is shaped the same both sides because I want this to be something that can be looked at from any angle and still look good.

Here we have a close up of the textured Carved then heavily scorched and Chestnut spirit stained black

I have now cast the Pewter in the recess ready for turning down.I found a negative scraper was the best for turning the pewter down

Pewter turned down level with Oak

I have now added some texturing to the Pewter with the Crown tools texturing tool a bit hard to see in this pic.

I decided that the whole centre done with Pewter was a bit too much I am not sure but anyway I decided to create a ring so that the two areas of wood would set of the Pewter

At this stage I still had the other side to do so I thought instead of casting the ring in the piece I would make it separately and then fit it in the recess .With a separate piece I have turned a recess a little over the size I will eventually need to give me scope for trimming up

 This has to be dead level or the Pewter will not be level after the pour

 Pewter poured and much too thick.

I have created a flat on the bottom of the mould so that I can hold it safely against the belt sander

This is flat on the bed of the Belt sander it is then stood up and sanded

Ring inserted and glued into recess

The Pewter has now been tooled down to size with scraper and a texture added

That is it all completed just the base to make now.

 I have decided to make a plain Oak base as a bit of a contrast this is it cut to size and ready for sanding on the belt sander

 Being thicknessed and sanded .Makes it all a lot easier when you have the right kit for the job

This is the finnished Sculpture it can swivel on the base so that the customer can move it to suit their taste.

 The base has been oiled with Chestnut Hard Wax Oil