Mick Hanbury was our demonstrator for May whose style of work is artistic and his style of demonstrating is easy and interesting to follow.

He started the day off with a brief chat about himself and his work and talked a little about timbers and ways of drying it. A new method to us although slow by comparison to others we have had mentioned is to immerse the logs in a very strong solution of detergent. It needs to be left “for a few months” though.

On to turning and Mick’s first piece was to turn a wet log of field maple that would not be finished today but would show the use of tools for the benefit of those new to turning. As he went along he explained the need for the precision of a well fitting spigot and how well sharpened tools make life easier. All his tools are fitted into soft grip handles with lockable collets and his grind stone is a steel wheel coated with diamond dust. (About £100 from Peter Childs).
I think he also mentioned J T Tools as well.

With sanding he went down through the grits and then coated the surface with his own mixture of pure bees wax and liquid paraffin. When sanding over this it forms a slurry that helps to fill any slight scratches to give a very fine finish.

Next came the real piece for the day.
A sycamore blank was chosen for this and turned to a similar shape to the first bowl. The back was decorated by cutting lines across the surface with a slim diamond cutter in a Dremel tool. The end result looked a little like barbed wire!!
The front was then hollowed out leaving a fairly wide rim on which a different texture was applied. Mick showed us a couple of styles using a Robert Sorby texturing tool and another idea using peel offs.
These can be bought at most craft shops such as Hobby Craft. Before you stick them to the wood stick them on your shirt to remove some of the sticky stuff or you will never peel them off your work.
Once applied, spray over them with a colour aerosol and when it is dry, carefully peel them off your bowl and you will have dragon flies chasing around for ever!!

The finish Mick had decided on for this project was to use an Arbotec tool fitted with a cutter resembling a mini chain saw with which he would cut a random pattern around the face of the bowl; but first he sanded the surface to a fine finish and “air brushed” it with a green acrylic art paint using a diffuser that was wedged into the paint pot and was blown through. DON’T SUCK!!! BLOW.
I believe that these are available through Nick Agar but don’t hold me to it.
He didn’t want to fill the grooves with the next colour, black, so this was lightly brushed on with a sponge brush and also coated the centre of the bowl. The final touch was to finger paint swirls all across the centre using iridescent art paints by Jo Sonjar.

Mick gave the finished piece to the club to be raffled at our next charity show.

The last piece of the day was to turn a yew box.

Many thanks to Mick for a very enjoyable day and I I think we all learnt something new to try out.
Our next meeting is on Saturday June 11th and our demonstrator for the day is Alan Hazel. Alan is on the R P T and has visited before.
His work varies from lace bobbins to square bowls, vases and even pens!!, but with a more artistic finish.

If you want to know more you will have to come along and watch his magic unfold.

I hope you all have a great day. I will be on holiday so won’t see you till the July meeting.

Graham.

Notice board


Discounts at Axminster Power Tools

Axminster have a new manager at Bobbing and he has agreed (with strings attached!!) to a 15% discount on all orders for woodturning tools and equipment over £200.
Now for the strings.
Only woodturning related equipment purchases apply. So no planers, chain saws etc. can be slipped in.
The order can be put together by several people to make up the value to £200 or more but only one person can pay for it.
Note. The club will not pay for it on your behalf.
The purchaser must be accompanied by either Bert Lanham or Roger Martin when they make the payment to prove that they are members of Orchard Woodturners.