Every week I like to produce a little collection of finished items in the workshop, however, every now and then you need to take a little break and expand your horizons. This week I finished and finally advertised one old thing, a lovely solid maple and walnut chessboard with an oak frame that I originally made 6 months ago. Confident it had settled properly and wasn’t splitting, I refinished it and sourced some pretty little metal pieces from another creator on Etsy and finally put it together as a set (pics below on my blog page at www.turningdreams.co.uk).
Beyond this, I have been thinking of trying my hand at salt and pepper shakers. I figured, I can make stuff, how hard can it be? Well, attempt number 1 answered that question. It’s a matter of accuracy in sizes. Fractions of millimeters off and things don’t fit, like, the stopper in the bottom that stops everything falling out! With wood turning, cut something too small and you can fix it, too big and it’s going in the bin…Once material has been removed you cannot really add it back in on a lathe.
So, attempt 1, bin. Attempt 2, too thin on the outer wall of the shaker and broke through, bin. Attempt 3, not bad but bottom half a millimeter too wide, keep because I like the walnut wood. Attempt 4, tool slip, top ruined, not fixable, bin. Attempt 5, finally!! I think I did OK in Indian Rosewood. Judge for yourself in the blog images. I think I’ll try and make a few more for the shop.
Finally this week, my good pal Al and I went up to Newark and visited the Midlands Woodworking Show. It was a great event, heavily geared towards turners with lots of stalls and demos. I met the team and had a little spend at both Record Power and Roberty Sorby but also met the brilliant team at Wood map of the world (www.woodmapoftheworld.com). Ill certainly be a return customer for my raw material supplies! An enjoyable after was had by all.
