Colwyn Way was out demonstrator for the month, travelling to us from his home base in Devon.
He's now a tutor having left working for Axminster And he ran us through his history from his early years as an apprentice, through to his life now teaching classes. He favours Keith Rowleys Foundation Course book for all beginners.

He started the day turning some simple pieces using Scandinavian Redwood. The first piece was a simple furniture leg to show some basic skew work. Colwyn favours his own signature skew which has a tapered shaft as well as using a Russian Doll knife for access. (A great example can be seen in this Russian Doll video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtFC4_UaPzI)

The table leg starts with cutting a pommel using the skew for a sharp transition between the square and the round. Then he switched to using a rough gouge to turn the rest of the leg to round, being careful of the nice sharp pommel. Colwyn ran through a series of basic cuts, showing V cuts, then half beads to begin the shaping. He explained how catches occur with the skew chisel, including some gentle examples and explained how to avoid them. He showed the push/pull skew cut but explained to end on a push cut to ensure the fibres are laid flat on the work. Once the basic shaping was completed, he finished the coves using spindle and bowl gouges.

The next project was a basic tree out of a small piece of Scandi Redwood mounted one end in the chuck. This was roughed to convex tree shape, then using the heel of the skew, he pushed a burr to the bottom line of the tree, repeating all the way up to the top of the tree to make the ‘branches’. This was then parted off before he showed a second taller approach with a larger blank.

The last Scandi Redwood piece was a Christmas ornament in the shape of a bell. With the blank roughed to a cylinder, a rough outline of the lower part of the bell was created, without going so deep as to weaken the stem and cause vibrations. The bell was hollowed out using a ¼” bowl gouge to create a nice thin wall, using the light to gauge the thickness. Once this was hollowed to the right shape, the rest of the top of the bell was shaped on the outside using a 3/8 spindle gouge for access. This was drilled with a 4mm hole, then parted off. He usually sells these in threes, joined with ribbon and holly leaves.

The next project was a series of trees in Brown Oak, Columbian Purple Heart and Pau Rosa. All three pieces were roughed to round first although for the pieces that were significantly smaller than the jaws, he just took the edges off to make the chuck grip better.

The Brown Oak was turned first, roughed to a basic bullet shape with the roughing gouge then planed smooth with a skew. This was a basic tree shape with a small feature at the top. The main body of the tree can be decorated with small v cuts before forming a trunk ending in a domed based, sanded to 400 grit and then coated with Friction polish and parted off.

The next tree was the Columbian Purple Heart, roughed down to round then given the same bullet shape as before. The base was marked and cut in, before the outside of the tree was created using an Ashley Isles fluted parting tool. The bead was made in two passes ensuring the beading tool left a very small flat on the top of the bead to prevent tear out. A trunk was cut in and this time a convex base. The tree was sanded and then finished using thinned sanding sealer, waxed with Liberon beeswax and then buffed.

The final tree was from the Pau Rosa blank which was mounted and then rounded down toa straight cone (Not convex like the previous two). This tree was baseless without a trunk, with the spindle gouge used to form a simple tree shape with pleasing branches. This was sanded to 600, then wet sanded to create an oil slurry. This was buffed then parted off.

The next piece was an offset pendant, made from a small square of pink ivory mounted on a sacrificial piece of wood. This was mounted in the small jaws and the front faced off with a bowl gouge to a slight radius on the face. The edges were cut square and then the face scraped using a skew as a negative rake scraper before sanding to 600 followed by an abrasive wax (Truegrit). The jaws were changed to a wood plate jaw with a recess in the plywood jaws to suit the pendant diameter. The piece was mounted with the sacrificial wood on the outside to be removed. Once done, the pendant was faced off, sanded to 600 and waxed with True Grit as before. Next some nylon jaws were mounted in the chuck. These had a similar mounting point, however this was drilled at a 10mm offset to the centre point. The pendant was mounted and a small hole drilled using a 10mm bit. The hole was then blended slightly using a bowl gouge before this was then sanded and the piece reversed in the jaws, ensuring that the orientation stayed the same. The hole was then blended in once more, slightly enlarging it in the process. Once removed, a 6 inch mop was mounted in the lathe on a mandrel and the pendant carefully waxed and polished. Colwyn usually drills a small hole at the top, before mounting on a pre made leather thong, and selling the whole lot in a small presentation box for £25.00.

The final piece of the day was a Humming Bird feeding from a flower. This was made out of a few different pieces but basically consisted of a Head, Body, Flower and base. The head and body blanks were both mounted between centres and rounded down. The body was then mounted in the small chuck jaws and trued up with a bowl gouge before forming a shape that was tapered like a comet. (Basically a ball with a tail). This was sanded to 400 then parted off. The head blank was then mounted and a similar shape turned but with a much stronger taper to form the beak. The head was tweaked to fit the body before sanding and parting off. The tops were sanded clean using a disk mounted in the lathe before a flat spot was created to glue the head and body together. The base blank was some branch yew, which was mounted in the lathe and then rounded to a near cylinder. It needed to keep some weight as the base would support the flower and Humming Bird on a wire. The 3mm hole for this was drilled slightly offset in the base. Finally the flower blank was mounted in the small jaws and turned to a trumpet shape, using the natural edge of the blank for the edges of the petals. The first one broke but Colyn had plenty of wood with him and the second one turned out to have a much nicer pattern in it. The out shape was created before holloing out the trumpet shape. A large cone was left during the hollowing to represent the stamen of the flower and to give somewhere to glue the humming bird into. This is then drilled all the way through with a 3mm drill. Sanded to 400 before parting off. 3mm copper wire (actually coloured aluminium) was used to mounted the flow, and the humming bird was glue into place. He typically sells these for around £55.00.

The final piece of the day was a Wobble pot made from wet wood and dried quickly to make it move and give it a leathery finish. The blank was mounted between centres and trimmed down with a bowl gouge because of the size. A mount for C jaws was created and a slight tapered outside formed. The blank was then reversed and the hollowing done in stages using calipers to gauge the thickness of the walls (Be careful not to drag them over the wet wood which would damage it.) The outside is sanded with 80 grit first which warms the piece and begins the drying process before moving up the grits. Finally the piece is reversed onto a dome drive and the chucking point removed, leaving the base totally rounded.

Best wishes,
Paul.

November Saturday 9th the demonstrator will be Anna-Marie Bennett.
Turning jewellery and other items. Should be a good day.

Fred