Ed Oliver was our demonstrator for November (due to a double booking with Golf in October!)..
He started with a piece of freshly defrosted Sycamore.. frozen shortly after being freshly cut to keep it nice and white (A tip Ed learnt from Joey Richardson!).
Ed also showed us some Kauri Root from New Zealand, around 50,000 years old it was dug up from bogs where the wood had been preserved (Similar to Bog Oak, but without the dark staining.). A very dense heavy specimen.
Ed started his roughing using his favourite grind, the long grind on his bowl gouges as it gives hi more edge to play with and provides a more versatile tool. Using this he turned the sycamore to shape on the outside, added a chucking point then reversed and mounted the piece in the chuck. As it was wet end grain, he tightened the chuck well onto the Spigot (a requirement for wet wood!)
The centre is then drilled out with a Forstner bit to the right depth for hollowing. Ed made a point of showing how he sharpens his Forstners right after using them to ensure that they stay sharp for longer. He does this with a diamond card and a small amount of lapping fluid, with just a few passes on the flat of each cutting edge required.
When ready to start hollowing, Ed made use of the rotatable headstock to make it easier to access the vessel. Then using a Simon Hope carbide tool on a big handle he began to hollow using the cutter at around 8 o’clock to prevent it being too aggressive.
Using a carbide cup cutter like this allows the hollowing to happen on both the push and the pull strokes. Measuring often with the calipers, Ed was aiming for a wall thickness of around 5-6mm and no thinner. As he was planning on texturing the piece, any thinner on the walls would risk the texture breaking through the side wall.
With the walls down to a good thickness, Ed moved to using a round scraper on the hollowing bar to smooth out the side walls and just remove some small ridges. This is less aggressive than the carbide cutter and does a good job or removing the marks and high points.
With the headstock back in the normal position, Ed marked out sweeping curved bar on the form, where he would create some small cut out pieces using a 45K rpm Micro motor to create windows into the piece. (Note: the NSK air cutters wouldn’t be suitable for this due to the wall thickness being more than 3mm. Ed’s micro motor is from Woodart Products)
Once the windows are cut out and sanded (Ed had some nifty little sanding tools that he found on Ebay that helped sand out the openings.) he then used the windows to quickly see where the walls might need refining to keep the piece looking right. By viewing in the openings, he could see where the walls were slightly too thick, and worked those some more before sanding and then moving to texturing the piece.
This was done using Cup Burrs mounted in the Micro motor. These were Busch Cup Burrs that are generally used by Jewellers, but work well in wood creating the texture and a burnt finish due to the speed. (Ed usually has a charcoal filter running to help remove the smoke and fumes while doing this.) The textured piece can take many hours (larger pieces take around 5-6 hours) so Ed sometimes does a bit, then does something else and then comes back to it to keep the pattern looking random.
Once texturing is complete a brass brush is used to clean off the surface and remove any debris, and lemon oil can be used to remove the burnt smell (Ed uses a small misting bottle to do this.).
Once completed, dry brushed interference paints from Golden Acrylics are used to add some colour to the outside, with the inside finished with Ebonising lacquer.
The second piece of the day was a length of Tulip branch from Ed’s garden. This is turned using a screw chuck drilled into the side of the branch (propeller style!). Ed started slowly then increased the speed as the balance improved. The back side of the bowl was shaped before a chucking point was marked out and cut into the base. The piece was then reversed into the chuck to hollow out the bowl. The headstock was rotated again to make hollowing easy. Once hollowed and finished with a sheer cut, the piece was sanded carefully, using a block to protect the shape.
The next piece was a dry piece of Horse Chestnut that will be turned and stained using spirit stains. Turned between centres the log is turned down into an ovoid shape before forming a collar that will become the top of the vase with the base turned down to a chucking point.
Once sanded to a finish, a base coat of light blue spirit stain was applied. This was given a quick sand at 180 grit to remove some of the colour, then a coat of Royal Blue spirit stain was applied…. Then more 180 grit.. then some Green Spirit stain, a sand at 240, some black, then some more 240, then some more light blue and a sand at 320. Finally some Yellow stain was used to blend the colours before sanding at 600.
The final piece of the day was a large previously used blank that Ed mounted and refined the outside of as it was out of shape. The chucking point was re-cut and the blank reversed onto the chuck. The outside was tidied and then sanded down. Ed then got his hot glue gun out and used hot melt glue to define a random pattern on the outside of the piece. Once covered the entire piece was sprayed black with ebonizing lacquer. Ed then used chestnut gilt cream, softened between his fingers to highlight the tops of the glue pattern, making sure to only highlight the tops of the glue lines. (Ed would usually use a hot air gun to remove any whispy ‘hairs’ from the glue.
Over all a great day with some inspirational use of colours and texture, with some good humour and stories thrown in.)

Paul

December meeting will be a club day so if you want to get away from the Christmas mad house let us be your refuge (Legal)

Fred