September 2025 Club Report
September’s demonstrator was Carlyn Lindsey. Based near Colchester, Carlyn is well known for her laminated (not segmented!) work that is always finished to a superb level of accuracy and quality. She has a background in 3D and Design and often works with plastic and metal as well as wood.

She started the day telling us that she would focus on design, particularly with a focus on finials, looking at size, proportion and features. She highlighted that creating finials requires lot of practice. Carlyn starts her designs on paper, mostly as small sketches in her notebook, that form the basis of a bigger design. This allows her to work out where the lamination patterns will appear.

Carlyn discussed the various rules, such as the rule of thirds (Golden Ration), the rule of fifths and that the pot and it’s finial should relate to each other. She shows how Golden Ration callipers (actually for Eyebrows!) can be used to measure up against the golden ration, but highlighted that sometimes, the rules need to be broken, and a pot and finial can be better judged by eye.

Her first piece was mounted between centres using the Simon Hope Star Drive, this is a chuck mounted spring-loaded drive (similar to a Steb centre) that can be quickly removed once a chucking point is created. Showing us a previously created sample pot, the first sycamore blank was turned down to begin an example finial based on the golden ratio (Measured using the callipers). The rule of thirds didn’t fit for this design, so Carlyn changed to use the rule of fifths. Taking careful cuts (and discussing the need for a closed flute when beginning the cut to avoid skating, Carlyn worked slightly back from the tip to avoid the bruised and damaged wood from the live centre.

She worked down the stem paying attention to the form, good lighting is key, something that wasn’t quite there in the hall!). Once completed she removed the tailstock and parted off.

Once fitted, it was agreed that in this case the golden ration wasn’t working, and the finial looked a little squat for the matching pot. For the next piece, Carlyn turned a finial that was a long as the pot was round. This was then divided into fifths again for the design elements.

This was turned in a similar manner, using a mixture of tools, but most of the detail work was done with long fingernail ground detail gouges. Carlyn talked about the importance of creating shadow lines to highlight the detail when creating form. Once the bulk of the design was done, Carlyn removed the tailstock and turned the tip and final finish with finger support.

After lunch, Carlyn showed us how she makes boxwood collars with hand chased threads for her fine finials. The box wood blank is mounted in a pin jaw chuck and the centre drilled away to almost the size of the finial base. A recess is cut at the back of the thread area to allow the threading tool a gap to cut into. Just before cutting the thread, Carlyn waxed the blank with some micro crystalline wax to lubricate the cut.

A slight chamfer is added to start the thread, and then the tool engaged at about 500rpm. Once the cut engages, the tool is rotated parallel with the piece and the thread slowly formed with rhythmic circular motion. Once completed, the piece is tided up and then parted from the blank, leaving a small internal collar with the thread on the outside.

The next piece is cut from the same boxwood blank, with the centre drilled out until the hole is slightly smaller than the internal collar. This leaves room for the thread to be cut. As with the previous piece, a recess is notched into the work to allow the cutters an area to run into. The female thread is then cut on the inside of the collar to meet the measurements of the male thread. After some minor adjustments, Carlyn tidied the edges and parted off the second collar. Both threads fitted together perfectly.

The final piece of the day was a laminated blank in Carlyn’s signature style of pale sycamore with black veneer. This was to be used to make a third finial for the pot shown earlier. Careful adjustment is required to ensure that the laminate pattern is perfectly centred on the lathe, with the pattern appearing equidistant around the shape.

As before the pattern was laid out, however this time, Carlyn was quick to point out that you needed to adjust the shape depending on which parts of the laminate you wanted visible. E.g. if the Bead had too much black, you may need to cut further through it to show the pale wood.

Once the item was completed, Carlyn showed us how she reverses the finials into a wood jam chuck designed to take the full depth of the finial. This allows her to customise the fit for the collar that would be screwed into the pot. This also allows her to finish the base of the finial inside the collar, allowing the pattern to show through.

Overall a fascinating day with a lot of information on form and design.

Paul

Thanks to Paul for that comprehensive writeup

This month October we should have had Ed Oliver with us but due to a mixup with his diary, He will now be with us next month November.
this month October Saturday 11th will be a club day so bring your concerns and worries and share them (Woodturning ones)

Fred