Big Spoons

I'm working on diversity... So I've carved 5 of nearly the same spoon... But they're different to the others...

All from Alder which is a dream to carve.

Many of the knife marks show as facets on the surface of the wood. You can also see where some of the grain has dropped, as the moisture leaves the wood. I like to leave these imperfections, partly because I don't like fiddling with individual spoons for too long and partly because its a reminder of the process.

Bowl Turning with Sharif Adams

Well, as you know by now, bowl turning is becoming my new obsession... Unbeknownst to me, my darling girlfriend booked me on to a surprise course for my birthday with Sharif Adams. Sharif is a talented turner and woodsman who lives in a woodland community on darkest Dartmoor. We spent the day in his workshop and he gave me loads of pointers and direction on my turning technique. As essentially I haven't got a clue what I'm doing, all advice is welcome and it's really useful to standardise the plan of attack... The nerdy notebook came out and so did the camera to jot down instructions and draw around various tools.

My efforts in spalted Beech, it has a couple of pieces of lead shot in the wall. I panicked at the thought of damaging Sharif's tools but the lead is so soft it sliced through without a mark!

Sharif's lathe is good and sturdy!

I came away from a great day with a cracking bowl, a new friend and a sense of empowerment over the turning process with lots of new techniques and ideas to work with.

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The Lathe

I've been on a journey. Even when I'm not walking the path, I have been focused on it. It seems like nearly everything I have done over the last 9 months has been leading up to becoming a wood turner. At the beginning of the year I joined the APTGW - The Bodgers. I have started turning on other peoples spindle lathes and got to grips with chisels and gouges. There are allot of helpful people who have shared lots of their time and knowledge to help me. I attended the Bodgers Ball in May and began infiltrating the inner circles of turners... My man on the inside (my mate Owen) gave me some pointers on lathe construction and armed with a chainsaw I set out cutting up a Sycamore log into the bed of the lathe. A couple of ash logs for the headstocks and 2 pointy bits of steel and we're pretty much ready to go right? Almost... Of course any journey worth taking has a struggle or two... Making the tools (that you can't buy in the shops) was the easy bit, getting the tools to do their job properly was the major issue... So after a bit of forging and hardening and tempering there was repeat grinding and sharpening sessions... I have ended up with four that are all working fairly well... More on hooks in a post to follow...

Anyway, incredibly, on one fine Sunday morning in September, everything came together... The final results were a bit ropey but I learnt allot about the process and it showed me where I need to regrind my tools (sigh). Since then I have done a smidge more turning and been on a brilliant course with Sharif Adams (more to follow!)

I feel this could be something all consuming...

Bowl 1 - Cherry, about 4 inches across. Lots of tear out and a jagged rim. I'm still gonna keep it forever...

Bowl 2 - Rowan, a bit bigger but just as bad.

Bowl 3 - Beech, turned under Sharif's guidance and a massive improvement.

Bowls 3 and 4 - Alder, turned 2 weeks after Sharif's course and benefiting from his tuition. I really like the spalting in the Alder and it turns really nicely with a clean finish. The walls are a bit thick but they feel even.

Watch this space...