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What’s on your lathe?

Kent Reisdorph said:
I would bet folks in other parts of the world would prize black walnut, black cherry, et al. Our friends from across the pond(s) no doubt will weigh in.
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Actually Western Europe has problems with Red Oak and coarse Evergreens from N. America, my cousin and now nephews have a lot of work removing and thinning out these species, but there are a lot of rules and regulations to work with, also Black Cherry is not liked as trees, they do not grow and mature as over here, of course they do have the European Walnut trees for the last 2000 years, they even have them now in England, renamed by them as English Walnut ;-) :rolleyes:
I lived for 25 years inThe Netherlands and trees an wood was part of our families living (on my mothers side)
This has grown into a large business, and was started by my great grandfather (He borrowed ;) a horse from the French Army )

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I’ve been without a lathe for the past month while Technatool in Florida repaired my drive board on my DVR 2024. The modular design of this beast made the servicing quite easy.
Heres one I dug out of the blank pile with some serious punkiness through the middle but really good colors. I was soaking it in Varathane wood hardener, thin CA, then overcoating the punky areas with medium CA to deal with the tearout. The remaining minor roughness gives it a bit of character, showing how close it came to being compost.IMG_3769.jpegIMG_3771.jpeg
 
Leo Van Der Loo said:
Actually Western Europe has problems with Red Oak and coarse Evergreens from N. America, my cousin and now nephews have a lot of work removing and thinning out these species, but there are a lot of rules and regulations to work with, also Black Cherry is not liked as trees, they do not grow and mature as over here, of course they do have the European Walnut trees for the last 2000 years, they even have them now in England, renamed by them as English Walnut ;-) :rolleyes:
I lived for 25 years inThe Netherlands and trees an wood was part of our families living (on my mothers side)
This has grown into a large business, and was started by my great grandfather (He borrowed ;) a horse from the French Army )

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That's pretty cool.
 
Leo Van Der Loo said:
Actually Western Europe has problems with Red Oak and coarse Evergreens from N. America, my cousin and now nephews have a lot of work removing and thinning out these species, but there are a lot of rules and regulations to work with, also Black Cherry is not liked as trees, they do not grow and mature as over here, of course they do have the European Walnut trees for the last 2000 years, they even have them now in England, renamed by them as English Walnut ;-) :rolleyes:
I lived for 25 years inThe Netherlands and trees an wood was part of our families living (on my mothers side)
This has grown into a large business, and was started by my great grandfather (He borrowed ;) a horse from the French Army )

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Hmm, I thought the English walnut was actually the Persian walnut, and the Persians were the ones who turned it into an orchard tree rather than the wild walnut trees.

robo hippy
 
robo hippy said:
Hmm, I thought the English walnut was actually the Persian walnut, and the Persians were the ones who turned it into an orchard tree rather than the wild walnut trees.

robo hippy
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English walnut originates in Iran (Persian walnut). A different species is native to North America.

Walnuts are an important ingredient in Persian cuisine. One of my favorite dishes is chicken in walnut/pomegranate sauce, served over rice.
en.wikipedia.org

Fesenjān - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
robo hippy said:
Hmm, I thought the English walnut was actually the Persian walnut, and the Persians were the ones who turned it into an orchard tree rather than the wild walnut trees.

robo hippy
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An other name is Carpathian Walnut, in the Carpathian Mountains it is where the Walnuts survived the last Ice age, there are still large Walnut trees growing in the wild, people have planted these Walnuts in a large area in Europe, the same Walnut trees grow in the area I grew up in, many neighbors had a Walnut tree on their property, as did we.
I assume that the Romans did plant Walnuts where ever they settled for any length of time.
But there is no reason to call them Italian/Spanish/French/ English etc. Walnut trees, as they are just the same species and are not native to England or the other countries.
 
The softest most rotten chunk of maple I had! Only piece big enough for what I wanted to do. Started turning at 6 high 12 around and ended up with 5 high and 10 round. Two coats of resin mixed with alcohol to make it firm up enough to finish. Ice pick penetrated all the way in on one side of the piece! I put my finger thru it in one spot before it flew off.
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David Wyke said:
My plan today was to finish the foot on about 15 bowls and get them in stock. Then I remembered I bought some Indian Ink last week for a future project and had to see how it looked on a white oak bowl instead. Now I’ll just add it to the others and finish them tomorrow…hate it when that happens😁😁

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Love the contrast! Nice curve down to the foot. Please put in gallery after it’s finished.
 
Working on some wild cherry wood the neighbor across the street gave me. It was roughed out maybe five years ago. Has a bark inclusion I had to fill with CA and luckily there was enough solid wood bridging the inclusion I didn't need to rely solely on the CA to keep it together.
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Dan Swain inspired me to try my hand at staves used in making a bowl. I had wanted to make this bowl/box for some time so desided to use staves for the top and bottom sections with a segmented feature ring in between. I spent the last week or so learning the ropes to do this. We have now accomplished some of the tricks involved. Here are some pictures of what is on the lathe and what is done ready for assembly. The woods used are Pau Ferro, Ebony, and Birdseye Maple, Itwill have a lid as well. This is going to be a wedding present for a Grandson who is named after me.
 

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Had a change of direction yesterday to patch thin spots. Instead of epoxy which would may dyeing difficult will use wood patches. Thought butterfly would be extremely difficult so used a straight patch.
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I won't turn mimosa/silk tree any more. It makes me sneeze and itch, like walnut.... It can be beautiful.

robo hippy
 
18 months ago, I was a rank woodturning amateur. I had a very ugly cherry bowl I was working on when I broke off the tenon. I glued it back on and that's the last time I worked on that piece. I know I have thrown that bowl away a couple of times, but somehow it keeps showing up (my wife tends to salvage things I have pitched). Yesterday I decided to do something with it. Here's the reimagined result. Just a plain 'ole 8" cherry bowl, but pleasing.

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Black locust toothpick box. I finally got one that turned out long enough to hold toothpicks. The threads aren't the best, but they turn nice, hold, and stop where they're supposed to. I've been dabbling with hand chased threads.
 

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Have spent the last 2 or 3 weeks on hollow-form lidded boxes. The 10 on the right are finished, the ones on the left awaiting their finish. Assorted woods include walnut, flamed box elder, teak, purpleheart, Blackwood, padauk, cocobolo and horse chestnut. One of my favourite colour combinations has always been yellow and purple (had a bicycle painted like that many years ago), this is commemorated by the Osage orange and purpleheart piece. Also turned a tagua nut for one of the finials, 2nd row, 2nd from left. It’s a bit oversized but I felt I had to use as much of this hard nut as possible. I can’t imagine the energy the tree used to produce this oddity. IMG_1991.jpeg
 
Kevin Weir said:
Have spent the last 2 or 3 weeks on hollow-form lidded boxes. The 10 on the right are finished, the ones on the left awaiting their finish. Assorted woods include walnut, flamed box elder, teak, purpleheart, Blackwood, padauk, cocobolo and horse chestnut. One of my favourite colour combinations has always been yellow and purple (had a bicycle painted like that many years ago), this is commemorated by the Osage orange and purpleheart piece. Also turned a tagua nut for one of the finials, 2nd row, 2nd from left. It’s a bit oversized but I felt I had to use as much of this hard nut as possible. I can’t imagine the energy the tree used to produce this oddity.
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Great looking boxes. Really like the finials on the two at the very front .
 
Kevin Weir said:
Have spent the last 2 or 3 weeks on hollow-form lidded boxes. The 10 on the right are finished, the ones on the left awaiting their finish. Assorted woods include walnut, flamed box elder, teak, purpleheart, Blackwood, padauk, cocobolo and horse chestnut. One of my favourite colour combinations has always been yellow and purple (had a bicycle painted like that many years ago), this is commemorated by the Osage orange and purpleheart piece. Also turned a tagua nut for one of the finials, 2nd row, 2nd from left. It’s a bit oversized but I felt I had to use as much of this hard nut as possible. I can’t imagine the energy the tree used to produce this oddity.
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How did hollowing that Osage orange go? Hard stuff.
 
Vincent Vogel said:
Black locust toothpick box. I finally got one that turned out long enough to hold toothpicks. The threads aren't the best, but they turn nice, hold, and stop where they're supposed to. I've been dabbling with hand chased threads.
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I just trimmed some large limbs off of our black locust tree. Wife turned a toothpick holder as well (sorry no pics at the moment). Open top version holder but love the character of the wood. Did the microwave drying method as she turned it a day after trimming.
 
Kent Reisdorph said:
How did hollowing that Osage orange go? Hard stuff.
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The Osage was not end grain oriented but rather side grain oriented. I thought it would be tough turning. However, the Oneway Termite tool did a great job. Had to present it at a reduced angle and take thin cuts. About 70% of the hollowing was initially done with a drill.
 
Finishing up a little box this morning. I don’t make boxes often, but when I do I really enjoy the challenge and process. This is Claro Walnut, as is the lid (not pictured). Paste wax finish. The Canarywood finial is also not pictured. The box also holds a little surprise (to be revealed).

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