Spalted Hackberry Hollow Form

One of the online forums I belong to is having a holiday exchange. I turned this spalted hackberry hollow form for it and it's now on the way to TN. It's about 7" in diameter and 4.5" tall. The spalting is beautiful and I left some worm tracks in it as well. While it was drying a small but long crack developed and I used some sawdust and CA glue to seal it up. Now I just have a few more small projects left to finish for the holidays!

I mounted a good sized spalted maple log to the lathe and got it round.

The shape was going well...

I was pretty much done hollowing it, just needed to scrap it smooth...It was pretty punky in the base but I though I could clean it up...then I thought, just a little thinner...then I thought OH NOOOOO!!! Then I remembered Neal Addy's sig line on WoodNet...."Never, under ANY circumstances, make the last cut."

About 3hrs work with a not so good result. Oh well, its just wood and my time...still kinda upset about it though. Nice looking spalted maple too...I guess there always another log, right.

Shop Time With Dad

This past weekend my family was in Kansas for turkey day at my parents. My dad and I only managed a few hours in the shop, but I was able to turn a few pieces to finish. First I got to try out his hollowing snake or elbow tool. It works fantastic and makes hollowing a breeze! We chucked up a hunk of sycamore and after about an hour came out with this. It's about 6" at the base and 6" tall as well. The walls are right at 1/4", boy does a laser guide help with consistency!











After a break we turned to bottle stoppers. My dad has made many of these recently and I see why, they are fun to do and if you get your blanks ready before hand you can get quite a few done in a short time. These are the two I turned, not sure about the one on the right, but it's growing on me. The one on the left is walnut and the one on the right is oak. (I'll be adding the pics later...the pics didn't come out very good from last night) I came home with about 5 walnut blanks and 3 or 4 mulberry...now I just need to order some corks or stoppers....

New Closed Form Shape

I finished this a few weeks ago, but I'm not sure about the shape of it. It's about 7" wide and 4" tall with danish oil finish. I'm trying some different shapes and this is just one of many that I have in my head and on paper too. What do you think?

Hollowing in KS

This past weekend I was in KS visiting my parents. My dad is also an avid woodturner and he has made a number of hollowing tools. His latest is a capture rig based loosely off Lyle Jamieson's design.

I tried it out while I was there on some red elm. Works very well. Hollowing can be very hard on the wrists, elbows and shoulders. Not with a rig like this. The hollowing goes much quicker as well. Below are a few pics of the form before finishing.

This hunk of walnut, along with some more too, was given to me by someone that I sold some lathe accessories to at the Woodsmith Store (see more about that here). He will be getting a bowl from some of the rest of it. Size is 7" H X 5" W and finish is watco danish oil. My wife's office neighbor and favorite co-worker is retiring in about a month and this will be her retirement gift.