Journal

Hollowing a thin – walled vessel with Phil Sheldon

Phil began his demo by roughing down a green ash log to round and explaining the various tools and techniques he uses to do this. He followed this by making a longer than usual spigot in order to mount the wood securely into his jaws.

Once the piece had been mounted securely Phil began to hollow the inside of the vessel with a variety of cutting and scraping tools whose functions he explained as he went along.

Now satisfied with his finish after sanding he then inserted his homemade lighting rig (mounted into the tailstock) into the cavity. By the transluscency of the wood as he turned away material he could gauge the wall thickness as he shaped the outside of the piece.

The technique can be applied to any thin – walled vessel you would like to try. Alan Jones suggested checking out the work of Ole Jakob Nielsen for inspiration. Thanks to Phil for a hugely informative demo.

Wolfgang Schulze – Zachau

The club welcomed back local ‘almost professional’ turner Wolfgang Schulze – Zachau who choose to demonstrate a number of small projects which would be of particular interest to our growing ranks of novice turners.

He began by rounding a lime spindle with the roughing gauge before parting off to begin his Xmas tree and demonstrate the techniques involved.

Using another piece of the lime spindle he carried on the Xmas theme and showed us how to make his version of a snowman.

And finally he concluded the session by executing a couple of finials that might be used to finish and enhance a lidded box.

Congratulations to our 4 members who all passed the AWGB Tutor Assessment! This means that we have now doubled the number of lathe leaders we have available for our Hands On evenings.

Our first ‘Hands On’ evening of the year was very well attended with lots of new faces. Welcome to you all! The project theme for the night was to make a bradawl under the watchful eyes of of 4 lathe leaders Phil, Alan Edwards, Steve Martin and Alan Jones and quite a few of our newer visitors were able to ‘have a go’.

First of all can we extend a very warm welcome to all of our new visitors. We hope this evening was interesting to you. Tool sharpening is one of the cornerstones of our craft and mastery of this will vastly improve your turning so it is appropriate that we kick off the new year with it.

Thanks to Alan, Phil and Roy for demonstrating the different methods that can be used to sharpen our tools.