Proy Wood

Hi Everyone,

Its been a different kind of week from usual. Our family got some bad news and so here is the story behind that:

Discussion

I have a family member who got a terminal diagnosis last week. She has been fighting a particularly aggressive type of skin cancer and is losing the battle and probably doesnt have very long to live. So I have been helping her with listening and helping with errands, decision making, and hospice interviews. In the course of our discussions she hauled out her considerable jewelry collection.

She lives in a senior residence here in Minnesota and the staff there are fabulous. They do an absolutely excellent job of running the residence, planning events, helping with services (one is a social worker-God bless social workers), and generally helping a fragile group of people live independently and happily and with purpose. Those guys have been great.

So in looking at all this stuff spread out I suggested that she pick out a small piece of jewelry for each person and I would make 3 small turned wooden boxes to present them in. So thats our project for this weekend.

Plans 

I purchased 3 3"x4" diameter blocks of wood from my good friends at Turning Blanks 4U in Florida as I wanted these to be special and Steve and Diane sell terrific turning stock. I purchased a cedar of Lebanon block, a camphor block, and a hackberry block and here is the photo of those blocks:



I have never turned hackberry before so I decided to work on that block first. I had seen hackberry before at a lumber yard in Minneapolis and the wood I saw was a greyish-cream with a lot of lavender undertones to it. It is found world wide, and its woodworking uses are for boxes, crates, and firewood. Its unusual looking and so I decided to make one of the boxes out of that. This particular block was probably cut a while ago as its very light weight:


So I drilled a hole in one end:


... attached it to the Nova chuck:


And began to turn it. Its very soft wood, and it reminded me of the pine wood that we turned last week. It has some spalted areas in it and its overall a beige color. It took a while to get it shaped as its very friable:

Here is the block after about 10 minutes of turning:


And here is the block after a few minutes of sanding and hollowing out:

 Well have to stop there.  Its admittedly not the most exciting piece of wood Ive turned this year, but who knows, it might fool us later.

Next, I decided to turn the cedar of lebanon. Cedar of Lebanon is native to mountainous areas of the Middle East and Mediterranean. Its been used by people for many centuries and has been cultivated for its resin and wood. This is also a wood that Ive never turned before and it reminds me a lot of douglas fir in appearance and in scent. As its dinner time, I decided just to even up the sides of the block and turn away the wax coating. And it does look like douglas fir.


As evening is here and its almost dinner and mosquito time, Im going to stop for the day. Tomorrow Ill turn the camphor block, Ill sand everything, and then well cogitate on lids for all these fellows.

See you tomorrow,
VW

Good Evening All,

Well, it has begun to snow again here in Minnesota this afternoon and evening. Its supposed to rain and snow all night tonight and into tomorrow so we may have some snow on the ground tomorrow morning.

Snow or not, its time to talk about the next project: the pine tea box and here is a photo of it from several days ago. Its the yellow block in the left of the photograph:


Discussion

Ive been wanting to make tea boxes that have a more curved exterior than the ones I usually make and Ive also wanted to begin experimenting with some exterior adornment. This block is comprised of several oddly placed pine blocks that were laminated together with the hope of carving the block. The grain patterns dont match up well so I think this might be a good block to experiment with. I also have a 2" thick solid pine block that I can use for a lid and both are a pleasant vanilla yellow color.

Plans

Im going to turn this into a tea box that has the capacity to hold about 3 oz of loose tea leaves. So first Ill cut off the corners of the block and then mount it on the lathe. Next Ill shape it into a cylinder and from that Ill sculpt the outside of the block. Lastly Ill make the lid for the box. When this is all done it will have to be sanded perfectly smooth and the tools will have to be kept super sharp to prevent tearing of the wood as soft woods are prone to this.

Ive got a head cold at the moment and its supposed to be cold and rainy tomorrow so I probably wont do any turning till Sunday.

Blue Period Returns

Those of you who have been following the blog for a while will remember that about a year ago I tried to stain a couple of dried flower vases blue and wound up with flower vases that were kind of a puke pink color instead. Ill spare everyone the details of that. This time Im going to paint the body of the box a blue-grey color and leave the lid natural pine color. So with paint there cant possibly be a way for me to screw this up this time (of course with all of the coffee scoop projects that have all gone bad, this may be too much to hope for) as Ill find someone to mix the color for me before I begin painting. So keep your fingers crossed, the blue period is coming back.

So if youre here in the mid west, stay warm and if youre elsewhere where its warm, stay cool and Ill see you later this weekend.

VW

Hi Everyone,

Well, its cool day in the northern mid west this morning-perfect turning weather! We also have an owl close by who has been hooting away a lot lately so its perfect wood shop weather.

We have two new projects to do:

The first is a large hickory bowl blank. I ordered this last year with the red elm bowl blank that I began turning yesterday. Id like to get this cut into shape in order for it to dry and be finished by fall. Here is a photo of it:


This is fine wood that is turning very well.

Normally I like to leave very figured wood alone--ie--I dont add any adornment to the exterior surface but this time I have hankering to add something to the surface-some beads or coves. Im not sure what Ill do so Ill stop for now and think about that before I continue.

Next project-Laminated red bowl

I wonderful friend of mine asked me for a red salad bowl some time ago and Ive searched heaven and earth for a solid red block of wood to accommodate her request but alas, no such luck. So in order to get a project going for her before I turn 100 years old, Ive decided to laminate a block of red-colored woods and make her a bowl.

Here we go:

I have some wood in stock that is red colored and its kempas wood, a favorite wood of mine for turning. Kempas wood is most often used in the US for flooring and exterior decking on houses. Its a deep orange red color and it turns wonderfully, but since most of it goes for flooring, its difficult to find it at all, let alone in solid turning blocks. Luckily I found some kempas lumber a month ago and had the foresight to buy it. This will make up most of the bowl. Next I have some cumaru wood, also found in flooring and decking and its a lovely golden brown color. It turns wonderfully and I bought some of that when I bought the kempas. I also have lots of hickory for contrast and a small piece of thin rosewood:



Ive gone a head and cut them to a uniform 4.25" in width and then I cut them down to 12" in length:



Lets arrange them into a possible bowl blank:




It needs to be a little wider in order for us to have a 12" diameter blank. Im going to have to add more wood but what kind and what color? Hmmm....better leave this and think about it over night too.

While I had the table saw set up I cut two platter blanks from solid planks of wood: one is black ash and the other is Phillipine mahogany. Those will become serving platters in the coming weeks.

So here we go again. Ill be back tomorrow to work on everything some more and in the mean time Ill give all this some heavy thought. So grab some coffee and put your feet up and join me tomorrow in the wood shop for yet another adventure in woodturning.

See you soon,
VW