Tom Hamilton
01-17-2009, 9:57 PM
Greetings Creekers:
At the Gulf Coast Woodturner's club (Houston) meeting today the first place ribbon in the advanced category ended up in my piece!
107281
This was an elm blank Rich Souchek, a fellow Creeker, cut after Ike. We ran into each other at Woodcraft and he offered me a piece of elm. My wife had recently commented that all my bowls were "sorta the same shape", a reasonable observation, so I decided to try something different.
Armed with a Raffin book where he describes using patterns when he first started turning, I made some patterns from his examples and turned this ogee curve bowl.
107278
The green wood has moved some so I'm stuck with the shape.
FYI, I power sanded to 400, and then used micro-mesh on the bare wood. A coat of BLO and six coats of home-made wipe on followed. (50% poly-50% Mineral Spirits applied with a piece of tee shirt.) I used the top four grits of micro-mesh on the last coat, on the lathe at 1500 rpm. The surface is glass smooth.
I would make the base a tad taller next time and I think the top curve could come in just a little bit. But overall, I'm very pleased with the result of a new shape. And so is my wife! And a blue ribbon to top it off.
Best regards, Tom, in Houston, ready to try another one of these.
At the Gulf Coast Woodturner's club (Houston) meeting today the first place ribbon in the advanced category ended up in my piece!
107281
This was an elm blank Rich Souchek, a fellow Creeker, cut after Ike. We ran into each other at Woodcraft and he offered me a piece of elm. My wife had recently commented that all my bowls were "sorta the same shape", a reasonable observation, so I decided to try something different.
Armed with a Raffin book where he describes using patterns when he first started turning, I made some patterns from his examples and turned this ogee curve bowl.
107278
The green wood has moved some so I'm stuck with the shape.
FYI, I power sanded to 400, and then used micro-mesh on the bare wood. A coat of BLO and six coats of home-made wipe on followed. (50% poly-50% Mineral Spirits applied with a piece of tee shirt.) I used the top four grits of micro-mesh on the last coat, on the lathe at 1500 rpm. The surface is glass smooth.
I would make the base a tad taller next time and I think the top curve could come in just a little bit. But overall, I'm very pleased with the result of a new shape. And so is my wife! And a blue ribbon to top it off.
Best regards, Tom, in Houston, ready to try another one of these.