First new turning in over a year

[Thom Sturgill]

This is the first start-to-finish piece in well over a year. 8 3/4" tall three part construction and Drs Woodshop friction finish Beall buffed.
the bell is big leaf maple and the base maple burl also western big leaf maple. The barley-twist stem is eastern hard maple.
361336
Comments and critiques are welcome as always.

[Roger Chandler]

Love the grain in that BLM, and the stem is superb! Hope you are doing well, Thom! Glad to see you back at the lathe a bit! :)

[William C Rogers]

Thom, that is a beautiful piece. The choice of wood was great. I love the stem. So since I have no idea, how do you make the "twisted" stem?

[Thom Sturgill]

Thom, that is a beautiful piece. The choice of wood was great. I love the stem. So since I have no idea, how do you make the "twisted" stem?
Thanks for the complement. Barley twists are laid out by drawing a series of rings, usually spaced about 1 diameter apart, and a series of longitudinal lines forming a grid. then draw the spiral by drawing corner to corner and end to end. this line is then cut with a razor knife and carved away to form the two (or more) ropes. Here's a video by a master - Stuart Mortimer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm-wWjlAtTw

[Thom Sturgill]

Love the grain in that BLM, and the stem is superb! Hope you are doing well, Thom! Glad to see you back at the lathe a bit! :)
Glad to be back. This blank has been sitting in my workbench for over a year turned as a cylinder! The best grain was about 1/3 of the way down which was the reason for the three part construction. So I also got an almost 3" box (in finishing process) and a blank for a 1 1/2" box out of the original blank!

[Thomas Canfield]

The parts are nice and the overall is excellent. Well done. Great use of the wood.

[jeff oldham]

excellent,,,,as Thomas said,,,well done,,!!!!

[Adam Petersen]

Really pretty work Thom. I too was gonna ask about the stem but I see you answered. That's phenomenal work. Beautiful wood too.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Beautiful work Thom! Very clean lines, wonderful grain and color - you should be proud of this one! Hope this means you are feeling better and will be turning more often.

[Thom Sturgill]

Beautiful work Thom! Very clean lines, wonderful grain and color - you should be proud of this one! Hope this means you are feeling better and will be turning more often.

Thanks Steve. Yes I'm feeling much better since I reduced one of the heart meds and we adjusted another. In addition I had my grandsons help clean some of the stuff "dumped" in the shop to a separate shed for storage so now I can walk around the shop again!! Still need to clean, but that is started and I got two more pieces (small boxes) out of the blank I cut the bowl from.

[Thom Sturgill]

The parts are nice and the overall is excellent. Well done. Great use of the wood.
Thanks Thomas. I was really trying to get the best part of the blanks for the pieces on this one!

[Thom Sturgill]

Thanks. I will have to admit that I was inspired by a piece I saw of FB. I had wanted to do a barley twist for a while, so I did!

[Thom Sturgill]

excellent,,,,as Thomas said,,,well done,,!!!!

Thanks Jeff, I appreciate the compliment.

[Sid Matheny]

First rate all the way! I have sure missed seeing your work Thom and and glad to see you back turning.

[Jay Mullins]

Very nice work as usual Thom. I'll be in PSL this month and looking forward to seeing everyone at the club.

Jay Mullins

[Thom Sturgill]

First rate all the way! I have sure missed seeing your work Thom and and glad to see you back turning.
Thanks Sid! I don't think I'll be away from the lathe again for anywhere near as long... I have several projects in mind to get done.

[Robert Willing]

Beautiful turning Thom. I think I might try the stem with a Robert Sorby Micro Texturing Wheel, but it might be too thin.