Here’s a Maple cutting board with Walnut accents that I recently did. It’s about 7″ square and the Walnut strips are 1/4″ wide. It’s finished with beeswax.

This was a cool exercise in creating a different pattern with the contrasting woods and something that I will be exploring more of in the future.

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Here is another collection of wine stoppers that I turned recently. As you can see, woodturning is quite addictive! It doesn’t take much time to complete a project, these taking less than a half hour to turn and finish.

Items like this make great gifts. When taking a bottle of wine to a dinner party or a barbeque I plan on taking one of these to leave with the hosts.

The process for making them is quite easy as explained here in this post.

Here are closeups of the individual wine stoppers:

Continue reading 'Another Collection Of Wine Stoppers'

In between other projects I’ve been puttering away at making a variety of wine stoppers. Using scrap pieces of wood and the tricks I learned at the wine stopper course I took last month I am getting into the habit of turning one as a bit of practice. Here’s four that I did recently:

These are great little projects to make. They don’t take much time and are an excellent exercise in spindle turning. They also make great use of small scraps of wood that may be lying around.

Here are closeup photos of each of the stoppers:

Continue reading 'A Collection Of Wine Stoppers'

Here is a couple of pens that I just turned. The pen on the top is in the European Round Top pen style and is made out of Buckeye Burl. The pen on the bottom is in the Slimline style and made out of Tulipwood.

Buckeye is a beautiful wood available throughout North America, specifically the US state of Ohio where it is the State Tree. The burl has a terrific swirling grain with multi-colored layers. I find that it looks like some varieties of animal horn.

Tulipwood is an exotic wood from northern Brazil, not to be confused with Poplar which is also referred to as Tulipwood. The heartwood is a beautiful pink-yellow with a pronounced striped figure in varying shades of salmon pink and rose red. The grain is straight but more often irregular, with a fine texture.

Both pens are finished with the UltraShine and Shellawax combo.

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No, it’s not Christmas! And not that kind of goose! This is a flying Canada goose that I carved a couple of years ago as a Christmas gift for my wife. It was a whimsical project in a folk art kind of way that was fun to do.

It was based on an article in Issue #4 of the Carving magazine. I was intrigued by the way that the wings were done so I thought I’d give it a try. It was also my first time at painting a piece.

The project was quite simple. Basically cutting the pattern out for the body and a bit of carving around the head and beak. The wings were cut out and feathers carved using a V tool. It sits on a wooden shaft and base and stands approximately 22″ high.

Here is a close up of the wing. You can see where it was carved to give a layered look:

Continue reading 'A Carved Flying Canada Goose'

Here’s a bowl of fire! Well, that’s what it looks like to me. I used an African hardwood called Padauk to create this bowl. With its rich grain and fiery red color it certainly makes a fine piece.

The bowl is 6″ in diameter and 2″ tall and finished with the new finishes that I recently bought. You can see how these finishes really enhances the project.

Padauk ranges in color from a deep red to a bright orange and it will darken overtime to a dark reddish brown.

Continue reading 'Pretty Padauk - A Bowl Of Fire'

Here’s a cutting board that I just finished today that is made out of Maple and Cherry blocks in a checkerboard style with two Cherry ends.

It measures 8 1/2″ X 10″ X 1″ thick and finished with Tried & True a combination of linseed oil and beeswax.

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Here is a bowl I just finished that is turned from Curly Birch. Curly Birch is a highly figured wood that has a beautiful, wavy grain that is said to look like ‘watered silk’. It is 6 1/2″ in diameter and 2″ tall.

I turned it with a shallow bottom that meets the side in somewhat of an undercut, creating a large, rounded rim. The bottom was turned with a scalloped relief. Overall, the bowl gives the impression of being fairly ‘hefty’ and when handled you have a tendency to grip the sides in an attempt to flex it. Rather unique.

Here are some close up photos:

Continue reading 'A Robust Rimmed Bowl Of Curly Birch'

I turned some handles for a few files and a drill chuck key today. Using the skills I learned at the recent course on Turning A Tool Handle I quickly, and easily, completed them within a few hours.

They are all made of maple with copper ferrules made from some old pipe that I got from a good friend. I left them unfinished to enhance their grip. Each one is shaped a bit different just because I wanted to have some fun with spindle turning.

The second one from the top sports some burn lines made by first making a slight groove and then holding a thin wire tightly against the turning wood. The chuck key is for my drill press and the longer handle will allow more torque as well as being a bit easier on the hand.

Continue reading 'Fine Handles For Files And Chuck Key'

I got a chance to do a bit of woodturning yesterday and made a cherry bowl. Well, actually, it’s a wooden bowl made out of cherry wood. You can put anything in it, including cherries.

It’s approximately 5″ in diameter at the top, 3.5″ at the base and 2″ tall. It is finished with Tried & True Original Wood Finish.

Cherry wood is really nice to work with, especially turning. It finishes up nice and the grain shows very well.

Here’s a photo of the inside of the bowl:

Continue reading 'A Cherry Bowl To Cherish'