Continuing with the ideas and style that I gained through doing the Peyoke Medicine Bowl I created this shallow bowl and added a band of burned dots around it.

The bowl is 7 1/4″ in diameter and 1 1/2″ tall and made of local Maple. It is finished with the U-Beaut product combination. The band was burned, stained and finished with a bit of wipe-on poly.

Here are a few more photos:

Continue reading 'Shallow Bowl With A Burned Band'

Here’s a small bowl that I made out of Maple. It’s just over 5″ in diameter and 2 1/2″ high and finished with EEE Cream and Shellawax.

The bowl has a nice curve to it that fits comfortably in your hand when you pick it up (hence, what I term, a ‘hold bowl’). It also has a small foot that gives it a bit of lift when sitting on a table.

The piece of Maple that I used for this was actually a piece of driftwood. I was surprised at how white the wood was inside though you can see a few spots where it has discolored a bit.

Here are a few more photos:

Continue reading 'A Small Maple Hold Bowl'

While writing the previous article on the English Gentleman’s Walking Stick I was reminded of a few hiking sticks that I made over the past couple of years.

I made a couple of them by turning decorative knob handles that sit atop perfectly straight shafts of exotic woods of unknown origin (honestly, they’re just commercially made push broom handles ) and a couple of them were made from young Birch trees that I cut, peeled and carved.

Each one is about 56″ (142cm) long and from 1 1/8″ – 1 1/4″ (2.5cm – 3cm) in diameter. They are all finished with just a couple of coatings of tung oil. One of the carved ones had a bit of stain brushed on to darken the carving.

Here are some more photos showing a closer look of the top of the hiking sticks:

Continue reading 'And Speaking Of Walking Sticks…'

My project for the Nova Woodturners Guild Fun Turn was, what has come to be called, an English gentleman’s walking stick. It is made of African Red Mahogany and it is 46 inches (117cm) long. It features aluminum rings on the shaft as well as a silver plated disk on the knob.

The object of the Fun Turn is to turn something from a 6″ X 6″ X 3″ block of wood, in this case, African Red Mahogany. I wanted to do something different again this year, something that I hadn’t done before. Last year I turned the Shared Heritage piece which sits in our living room and I enjoy seeing it every time I walk into the room. It’s unlikely that I would ever have turned this piece if I wasn’t given the Fun Turn challenge. I also wanted to create something that would maximize the amount of wood in the block. So after months of staring at the wood, (yep, just sitting there and staring at it ), it came to me – I would make a walking stick. That would definitely maximize the wood!

I cut the block into eight 1 1/2″ X 6″ pieces, drilled a 2″ deep hole in each end, except for the top and bottom piece which only had one. I wanted something to accent where the pieces joined so I cut 1 1/2″ pieces of 1/8″ aluminum, rounded the edges on the grinder for easier turning, drilled holes in them and then glued the whole thing together with 4″ long hardwood dowels. However, to make it easier for roughing I just glued two pieces together at a time. I turned them individually and then when they were all rough turned I glued them all together and did the final turn and shaping.

The top was made out of a separate piece of wood, some type of Mahogany that I had here in the shop and matched well, with just enough shade variance to accent. The tip is made of just several washers and a screw which not only matched the other ‘silvers’ but will also be quite adequate at protecting the wood. To get the right length I cut several inches off the bottom section.

Here are some more photos of the stick including one of the block of wood that I began with:

Continue reading 'An English Gentlemen’s Walking Stick'