It's been a while

I haven't posted on my blog in quite some time now. It's been a bit
hectic lately. I haven't had too much time to turn.

I have however turned one or two bowls that I will post pictures of
soon.

Most of my time at the moment has been going into a restoration
project. I am in the process of restoring an old dining room table. I
have been labouriosly removing the varnish after taking my time with
repairing the legs which had split.

I have also been starting to experiment with some other things like
composting. I bought some earthworms and made myself a composter. I am
going to see if I can get the worms to break down all my old turning
shavings so I can use it in my garden.

I will post details of these projects soon as I am sure some of you
out there may be interested in these.

Natural Edge Jacaranda Bowl

I turned a lovely piece of Jacaranda this weekend. The wood is very easy to turn and I found that it was rather nice to finish a well.

Natal Mahogany Natural Edge Bowl

This is an unfinished natural edge bowl I made today out of Natal Mahogany. The wood seems to weep a beautiful purple colour as can be seen in the images. I also tried out my new Robery Sorby Sanding Master. Wow it is a really nice piece of kit and results in a fantastic finish.

I am hoping that I can maintain the purple "weeping" from the wood. It gives the bowl a unique look and almost resembles a birth mark.

I will post once I have finished the project, but for now I must leave it to dry.

African Paddock Bowl

This is a bowl that I made out of African paddock. The wood has a natural red/orange colour which is very striking. Turning this wood is very messy and the dust almost looks like brick dust.

Nick Arnull Demo

Above: Nick Arnull and his Celestial Bowl

Last night the PEWG hosted Nick Arnull who gave us an amazing demo of the "celestial bowl". It was a fantastic event and Nick was brilliant. I really liked the demo because it was a relatively simple concept that a novice could do, but is such an amazing effect.

Nick seems to have an incredible talent for using colour on wood to give it a totally different, vibrant look. The celestial bowl is a great example of using colour to highlight the center of the piece and showing off the qualities of the wood by framing them.

He brought some of his other new work with known as the Coral Series which are amazing. Again the use of colour and texture combined with his mastery of turning make these pieces an absolutely spectacular sight.

Sneezewood Lidded Box

This is a sneezewood lidded box I made over the weekend.

Making a basic bowl

This is my tutorial on making a basic bowl on the lathe. Bowls are a fantastic project to make on a lathe and they are relatively easy to make. You can get creative with the bowls and make different designs, but this is just for the basics.

What you will need:

• Faceplate and screws
• Nova Chuck
• Bowl Gouge

Step 1.) The blank
Note that you should cut off the square corners of the blank.
You need to find the centre point of the blank.
Mount the blank on the face plate using the screws provided.

Step 2.) The chuck hole
Turn the shape of the outside of your bowl.
Make a recess in the bottom of the bowl to fit the Nova chuck snugly when it is closed.
Note that you need to make the hole a slight dovetail as the jaws of the chuck flair out slightly.
Also try to get the chuck hole the same depth as the jaws, so that when you push the bowl onto the chuck it fits flat on the face of the chcuk. (This helps you to square up the bowl)
Try your best to complete the outside of the bowl completely as you will not be able to access it easily once you remove the faceplate.

Step 3.) The bowl
Now you can remove the faceplate and mount the bowl on the nova chuck.
Make sure that the chuck holds the bowl tightly and it is square.
Turn out the inside of the bowl making sure that you don't make the sides even and that you don't go all the way through.

Step 4.) Finishing
While the bowl is still on the lathe you can sand it. Start with rough grit sandpaper and move all the way down through the various grits.
I normally start at 60 grit, then 80 grit, 100 grit and finally water paper.

Varnishing
Once you have sanded the bowl you can varnish the bowl.
I start with 1 liberal coat of Woodoc 10.
Once the first coat has dried give it a light sand with steel wool.
Put on another coat and steel wool again once it has dried
finally put on the last coat and leave to dry.

I hope this will be helpful. Please give me some feedback.

Woodturners Retreat

My dad found this fantastic website with almost anything a wood turner could ever want! I am going to go and surf around for my next purchase. Check it out, its got a lot to offer!

http://www.turners-retreat.co.uk/

Mallet

Last month the PEWG (Port Elizabeth Woodturners Guild) showed us how to turn a mallet. This is my rendition of the turned mallet.
I am not sure what type of wood it is. I just used some scraps I managed to find. The head of the mallet is a bit darker than the handle, because I used two different types of wood. I am also in the process of making a smaller version of this mallet out of beech.

I also just got a very nice set of forsner bits which I used to drill the hole for the handle to fit into.

Wetstone horror!

My father got himself an amazing new Jet Wetstone system with all the bells and whistles for sharpening wood turning chisels. I watched the DVD part on sharpening gouges with the gouge jig and felt confident I could sharpen my chisels with ease.

Well it turned out to be a disaster! I destroyed one or my gouges completely. I am not sure exactly what I did wrong as I followed the instructions from the DVD as best as I could. I basically ground the angle on my gouge too shallow, I havent even bothered to try and fix them as I am too scared I am going to destroy them even further.

I am going to see if I can get the expert and Strand Hardware to try and help me re-grind my gouge back to something usable. I did have a great deal of success with the skew chisel and the large bowl gouge. They are both razor sharp. Wish me luck! I don't want to have to go and buy a new chisel now after dropping so much cash on a new Nova chuck!

I think this is a wonderful tool, a bit expensive, but once I can learn how to use I think it will be indispensable!

I got a Nova Chuck!

I just bought myself a brand new Nova Chuck! I got it from Strand Hardware in Govan Mbeki Avenue.

A Nova Chuck allows you to hold the wood on one side and do spindle work, or you can use it to hold the bottom of a bowl for bowl turning.

I will add some pictures as soon as I get home and have a chance to assemble it.

Some of my work to date

Candle Holder (Beech) - Made on the course done with Nico Swart



Milk Stool (Pine) - Made on the course with Nico Swart



Natural Side Bowl - Made on the course with Nico Swart



Simple Bowl (Unknown Wood)



Square Bowl (Unknown Wood)


Small shallow bowl (Imbuya)

About Me

I am pretty new to wood turning. I bought a Rockwell Lathe about 2 months ago, I managed to source some tools from my dad, who recently upgraded his set.

I have also just Joined the Port Elizabeth Woodturners Guild PEWG.

I started turning when I was about 16 years old. I basically taught myself on my dads lathe and I made one or two lamps and some solatare boards. This year my father and I went to Nico Swarts' wood turning classes and where taught how to use the tools properly. Ever since then I have been addicted to turning.

I am slowly but surely learning and growing my skills to that one day I can make some works of art.

My Rockwell Lathe