• Background to wood and its history,  wood craft,  wood turning

    Spalted woods. Which wood to spalt?

    Which wood to spalt? Beech is by far the easiest wood to spalt well. It almost always ends up with black line and distinctly different colours. This bowl shows only one area left with the wood in its natural state. All the rest has been affected by fungi. I don’t know how many different ones. It was at the very limit of having enough structural integrity to work. Even with the gauge straight off the grinder it was difficult not to get tear out on the end grain. This wood had been left outside in all weathers for a year and a few months. It was a large tree and…

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  • wood turning

    Wood Turning -Setting Up My Workshop 1

    My Wood Turning Workshop Starts to Take Shape   Some months ago I was visiting Roni and, as usual, could not wait to do a bit more wood turning. There I was turning a rather nice, if I do say so myself, mushroom when Roni asked why I did not set up my own workshop at home? I had thought about it before and dismissed it on a couple of grounds. Firstly there was the cost. Wood turning is not a cheap thing to set up. There is a lot of necessary kit.  A lathe for a start, have you seen how much those things cost!? Then there is extraction…

  • wood craft,  wood turning

    Turning Mushrooms

    Phil came to stay last weekend. Having taken to wood turning like a duck to water when he first tried, naturally he wanted to have a go again. (I, of course, expect everyone who tries their hand at turning to love it but suprisingly not everyone does.) When I asked Phil what he’d like to turn he said “mushrooms and earrings”. I was delighted at this. Something a bit different – where he could choose the design as they weren’t something I’d been making for ten years unlike the bowls. Years ago I’d made mushroom shaped nightlights and boxes where the top was the cap of the mushroom but I’d…

  • Lathes and machines,  wood craft,  wood turning

    My Big Lathe

    This is my favourite lathe and was in fact the first lathe that I bought though I didn’t use it straight away. I can turn up to 24″ diameter on this lathe. I love the history associated with this lathe. It started life as a metal spinning lathe – something I’d never even heard of when I first had the lathe. It was in a poor state and I had to derust then paint it. There was no tool rest and when I was asking Huw to make one for me I really didn’t know what I needed. This tool rest can be moved at a couple of different points…

  • Lathes and machines,  wood craft,  wood turning

    Viceroy Short-bed Lathe

    This Viceroy short bed lathe is a wonderful lathe. I can turn up to 16″ over the bed and if I wanted and needed I could also turn larger pieces on the outside. However since I have another, larger lathe I’ve never set this up for outboard turning. This lathe has been converted to variable speed running from zero to about 1400 rpm. This is great as the belts for the different speeds are harder to change on this lathe than my little Scheppach. So I have an inverter mounted on the wall and a three phase motor. There was a three phase originally on the lathe but unfortunately not…

  • wood craft,  wood turning

    The Smallest Lathe

    This is a Scheppach (dmt450) 5 speed bench mounted wood turning lathe. This lathe was the first lathe I used seriously. And I did use it seriously considering it was a small inexpensive lathe. It was bolted well to the bench and within months I was turning bowls up to the maximum diameter of 10″ (150mm). And these weren’t always round bowls either. I had already been making furniture for several years so I knew how much I liked the natural edge and the beauty of the wood in its fullness, not cut into a straight line for my ease of use. I was very impressed with this lathe. It…

  • About Wales

    Santes Dwynwen

    Santes Dwynwen is the patron saint of lovers here in Wales and the day Santes Dwynwen is celebrated is the 25th of January so I thought I’d share her story. Santes Dwynwen was the beautiful daughter of a Welsh King Brychan Brycheiniog who lived in the fifth century. Brychan had lots of children it seems (possibly 24), many of whom became saints (bit of a popular pass-time back then, it seems). Dwynwen fell in love with Maelon and he with her but it was not to be. Exactly what the problem was is a little unclear and history becomes legend. Probably her father wasn’t willing or had already promised her…

  • Background to wood and its history,  wood craft,  wood turning

    Commissions 1

    Commissions offer a different challenge to my everyday work. I love to have different commissions. Sometimes I am given commissions to turn bowls from wood that someone’s home and that is always a pleasure as it has so much personal meaning to the people involved. Wood always has a history but if that history is linked to the people who are able to keep the wood and possibly even pass it down through the generations that is so special. It is also through being given commissions to turn something from people’s own wood that I have come across some of the most beautiful wood I have had the pleasure to…

  • Background to wood and its history

    Milling Wood Problems.

    Milling wood for furniture or wood turning is an interesting experience. The bark of a tree can hid many secrets. Obviously becoming more experienced means I can see subtle clues but there is not always anything showing on the bark after many years or decades. Sometimes milling wood and lifting up the plank reveals the most beautiful figuring that wasn’t expected. Then the excitement grows with each cut. Sometimes there can be disappointments – a nasty area where a dead branch has spoiled otherwise good wood or a rotten area, even a whole section that is hollow. One old Sycamore had a pink area in the middle that was very…

  • wood turning

    Lathe Safety

    As someone who has worked on lathes for many years thinking about lathe safety is second nature to me. I know I’ll be off work for a long time with a broken finger and I’d never be so good with only one eye. Also, I heard of a young woman who was killed when her hair got caught in a lathe. You can read the full story here . It was interesting introducing the lathe safety to someone and verbalising what I instinctively practice. So, when I was showing Phil how to turn his first bowls I made sure that he was aware of the basic lathe safety rules. For anyone…