Woodturners Resource

A bowl, and a request for help!

Fri, 03 Jan 2014 20:06:42 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: I've turned this bowl from salvaged firewood from my local firewood vendor, this is not as it might seem, a rounded lip bowl with very thick walls, but actually it's a rounded lip bowl with a closed up opening (an hollow form? almost, but not quite...), with walls 2 millimeters (about 1.5/32") thick all around, it took very careful scraping and then lots of sanding to get it to that state. It's finished with bees wax, friction melted. The help I need is with identifying this wood, as the guy selling the firewood told me it was English Oak, but all English Oak I've seen online, raw or turned, does not look like this wood at all. I can help with saying that when it was green it was very soft, almost white in color, very wet, and very porous, water (it was water, not sap) was shooting off it all while I turned it, it took 7 months to dry out, and when I worked on finished it, it was bone dry and very hard, the scraper made more dust then shavings, and the brown pattern which I thought was some kind of fungus runs all the way up the trunk, and it is present in all the logs of this type of wood I've seen so far, and I've seen thousands of them in all the places that sells firewood, they all had it, so I think a fungus may not be the case. Thanks!!

Finally a Eucalyptus large bowl!!

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 11:11:12 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: After making a score of smaller bowls, and making about 10 rough turned large bowls all out of green Eucalyptus, one of them survived drying!! all the rest have cracked badly, but this single bowl managed to stay whole over 7 months of drying, and yesterday evening I've turned it down and finished it with some bees wax. The bowl is 3" (7.5 cm) tall and 8.5" (21.5 cm) wide, and the picture really does not show the stunning color this wood has.

Handles and knob

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 11:05:29 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: After a 5 months period in which I didn't turn at all due to pains in my shoulder and palm (at this point I'm still in pain and I have 3 doctors fighting about whats wrong with me, while getting zero treatment...), I received a request for a custom job on my Etsy shop, I just couldn't let it go, it would be my first sale of anything I've made with wood!! so I fought through the pain, and I made this guy in Washington 2 handles and a knob for his vintage coffee roasting machine, and I think it came out pretty well! it's made from Santos Mahogany, and I've threaded the handles with a bolt I ground groves in, then bolted them with new bolts and cut to size, and threaded the knob too. The finish is Mineral oil.

English Elm Lidded Box

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 20:36:45 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: This lidded box was turned from English Elm for the box itself, English Elm Burr for the lid, and Santos Mahogany for the finial, it was my first lidded vessel and my first go at a finial, it took me 5 hours in total to turn, sand and apply a mineral oil finish, since I didn't think a glossy finish would look good on this type of worm holes riddled wood, and also since I usually use bees wax and friction melt it, I really didn't think it would look good, pieces of unmelted wax in all the holes...

1 comment

Common Laburnum plate

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:59:50 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: What I learned from this plate is to never turn your hole for the chuck too thin when using expansion, since thin wood rims are not super good at not breaking apart under stress... but all said and done it survived with just a minor crack to the rim which some thin CA took care of. I love the grain and shapes this wood has and I wish I had some more of it to work on, but as we know, my wood supplier is as fickle and chancy as spring rains, what ever that means....

Alder bowl

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:57:14 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: This bowl was turned from Alder wood, it has a nice little bark incursion, but I did make the angle of the bend inside and outside of the bowl a little too hard, so when it came time to finish it with some bees wax, and then melt it, I couldn't get in there well enough to melt the wax. Good thing I smoke, so I had a lighter on me (never thought I'd say something like that, but hey, first time to everything...), so some slow speed turning and fire did the trick just fine. I wouldn't recommend doing this, but I simply don't know, it could be a very well used and documented method to help with the finish...

Olive Ash bowl

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:09:24 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: This Olive Ash bowl was turned with a lid, that was made from hornbeam, but alas, the lid got warped and cracked itself into the firewood bin, and that was it, and so my first lidded bowl turned into an normal bowl, be it a legged bowl. I love the grain in this one, and it's a shame I can't upload more pictures of the same bowl from different views, since the grain and color is very nice all around it, but this picture is quite representative of it, so that it.

Beech platter ufo

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:05:51 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: Well, I've started making this Beech platter with one thing in mind, but the wood told me it had to be this way, and no other. At the start I didn't like the shape it took, as I was going for something a lot flatter, but as it is, it's one of the eye catcher of my little collection because of its shape, a kind of an upturned hat. The lines were done with a 3mm parting tool, and it was the first item I've done with any kind of decoration on it.

Small chestnut bowl

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:05:13 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: This little bowl was turned for a piece of chestnut, and I wasn't planning to make it the shape it ended up being, it was supposed to be my first natural edge bowl, but I mounted the wood screw too tight, and at some point after I started turning, it flew off my lathe, hit me right in the middle of my face shield, and proceeded to hit the floor with such force that a large piece of it broke off, but I think there was probably a hairline crack in there I missed which caused all the trouble. I remounted it, and that was what the wood wanted to become, so I let it.

2 comments

Hornbeam bowl

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:01:04 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: This bowl was turned out of a large piece of hornbeam, and it was very hard to turn, as the wood was rock solid, and I could only make small and delicate cuts into it, simply because it was so hard. The wood has a real marble texture and feel to it, and the grain, when looked at closely looks like a hologram, and is quite striking. After doing this bowl I understand why this wood is also called ironwood, it's amazing how hard it is, it does look and feel like it was made from stone.

Pear plate

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:56:49 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: This large plate was turned from a dry piece of pear. At first I wanted to keep the bark, but it came off pretty quickly into the turn, but once I've seen the color of the fresh wood under the oxidized layer, I was glad for it. The wood was one of the most enjoyable I had worked with, the cuts long and smooth, and getting a clean surface with no tool marks was no problem at all. With a couple of inclusions, it has the perfect look for any rustic kitchen or dining room, and the picture does no justice to the color and texture this piece has.

Walnut salad bowl

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:52:15 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: This large salad bowl was turned from a dry piece of walnut, that was so full of cracks I wasn't sure I will even turn it, and when I did, I wasn't sure it will hold until the end, but at some point where I felt it was getting edgy, thin CA glue and some sawdust have come to fill in the cracks, and the bowl came out even more interesting then what I thought it would be in the end, and is one of my favorite bowl to date. A bees wax finish gives it just the right look I wanted for it, with it's long curving shape and small base.

Poplar root bowl

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:04:55 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: This bowl was one of the first bowls I turned, just about after I had enough practicing my skills on cheap pine construction beams. As you can see, it is turned from Poplar root, and has a mineral oil finish, and is displayed morbidly on a bed of it's own wood shavings. I found working with Poplar root difficult since it was so soft compared to any hard wood I worked on before it, but it also mean it took me about a third of the time it normally does to turn the bowl, and a quarter of the time spent sanding another, so it was a quick project with a pleasing result.

Hollow form 1

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:59:25 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: This vase/hollow form was turned from fresh wood I found at my local firewood supplier, he couldn't tell me what tree it was from, but it was kindly identified by Freddie Hicks as Black Locust. It was the first time I tried to turn a hollow form, and since I don't own a hollowing tool, it was done with a simple deep fluted bowl gouge, spindle gouge, and a round nose scraper for finishing inside. The vase has some bark inclusion on the other side, but I chose this picture to display it because it shows better the form or the vase. Although it was turned from fresh wood, the fibers of this wood are so dense and heavy, I thought it was dry, and so I finished it, but since I took it indoors with me, it has warped a little, but didn't crack at all, and it still looks great on display. I have also turned later on a companion bowl from the opposite side of the same lumber, and I will post a picture of it as soon as it's finished. Update: My parents came to visit me in Italy the last weekend, and my mother fell in love with this hollow form and the sister bowl I made from the other half of the log, so I gave them to her, but I forgot to take pictures of the bowl, sorry about that.

Crochet needles box/holder.

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:51:59 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: This crochet needles box was turned from a discarded table legs I found sitting on the curb in my neighborhood, I believe it is Santos mahogany, and was kindly identified by Freddie Hicks. I made this for a friend in the office where I work, as a thank you present after she Crocheted a giraffe and an elephant for my kids. It has copper wires embedded into the wood, and sanded flush, and charred recess.

2 comments

Decorated tool handle

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:44:13 +0000

by: Yuval Lahav

Description}: This is the first tool handle I turned, and I took the opportunity to try out two decorations techniques, copper wire embedding, and friction burning. The wood is from a discarded table legs I found thrown to the curb in my neighborhood, and I believe it to be Santos mahogany, kindly identified by Freddie Hicks. The handle was modeled on my spindle gouge handle, although this one is much nicer looking, and feel better too to grip. It was fitted with a drill mandrel for boring a hole in projects while turning.