Orchard Woodturners – Sat 10th June – Martin Saban-Smith
Martin started with some short tales of his travel to events in other countries, before starting on a piece of Iroko. Using his favourite bowl gouge grind of 55 degrees with the heel ground back to prevent heel damage.
With the tail stock up and the piece rotating at about 1000 rpm, Martin used a pull cut to shape the wood. He said that he tends to favour the pull cut most of the time, dropping into a shearing cut with the handle low for a good finish.
To demonstrate the use of the bowl gouge, Martin had a huge 3D printed gouge, a great demo accessory! He demonstrated the three points of contact, Hip/Hand/Rest which makes for a smooth cut and provides good control.
With the outside of the bowl shaped with a slight Ogee, Martin showed how to use an inertia sander, highlighting that you should use the whole of the disc and not just the edge. Working through the grits to remove the marks from the previous process. Martin only sands to 400 when colouring, as going beyond this can cause the wood to seal unevenly which results in patchy colours.
Martin used gloves to apply a mixture of Blue, Plum and Ruby colours in blended patches. Once this was completely dry he burnished it with a piece of cloth to remove any raised grain caused by the stains. Some sealer was applied then a coat of lacquer to protect it before some texture was applied with a spiralling tool. This was de-fluffed using a scotchbrite type cloth and then white texture wax (basically liming wax) was applied and then buffed off, leaving the texture highlighted. The piece was then remounted in the chuck to remove the bowl.
Martin removes the centre of bowls at under 1000 rpm, which focuses on tool presentation, with the centre of the bowl being removed by swinging the bowl gouge through a clean arc. Martin talked about the gouge presentation for removing the sides and bottom of the bowl, highlighting that the bevel should be parallel to the rest when removing the bottom to avoid Pips and Dips.
For the rim of the Bowl, Martin likes to scallop the rim slightly to create a shadow line, with crisp transitions between the Sides and top.
For the next piece, Martin put a piece of Sycamore between centres to make a small vase. This was roughed to round and a tenon applied before mounting in the chuck. The end of the piece was cleaned of using a spindle gouge, with Martin highlighting the need to ‘float’ the bevel rather than ‘rub’ it, as rub suggests pressure.
The end of the vase was drilled out and hollowed (quite roughly to save time in the demo!) using a Simon Hope carbide tip hollowing tool. Once the tip of the tool is beyond the sight line, hollowing is done by feel and sound.
Once hollowed, the piece was reversed using a “Rubber Chucky”, a neat device revolving support that sits in the tailstock to provide support to hollow forms. The outside and the foot was shaped, and a coating of black lacquer was applied before we stopped for lunch.
On our return from lunch, Martin continued with the piece which he said was inspired by Japanese turner Eiko Tanaka. The black lacquer hadn’t worked well due to the rather warm weather, so Martin switched to using a black stain instead. One benefit of this was the stain showed the figure in the wood much more clearly, which Martin made use of while colouring the piece. The stain was sanded back to 320 to remove some of the stain, with some hand sanding on the pieces of figuring. A red stain was then used, followed by some more picking out of the figure, before applying an orange stain, which was then blended with the wood. Sealed with Spray sealing and then a Satin Lacquer.
The next item was a large platter started between centres. The rear was shaped to an ogee with a chucking point created. A foot was marked out and the ogee refined to fit the foot. This was then power sanded, and a satin lacquer applied.
Once reversed and mounted in the chuck, the face was trued up carefully due to the thickness. Once flattened with a wide rim and a small bowl created, the piece was sanded to 800 (Higher this time due to the use of Airbrushes in the next stage.)
Martin setup his airbrush using a compressor with a Tank, which allows for constant pressure during use. He favours syphon fed brushes (those with a Jar underneath the brush). The platter was masked, and stencils were used to create a scene. The surface was then protected with a spray sealer.
The next meeting July 8th will be a morning demonstration by Howard Overton.
The afternoon will be left open so that if there are any problems or questions you would like answered than that is the time for you.
Paul/Fred
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