Finish with Finial?

[George Tokarev]

Someone mentioned in the other thread that they couldn't figure a turning sequence, so here's one begun yesterday before the kids came over, and finished today. Should be pretty intuitive. Only one that's strange is my depth addition. I used a maple collar to extend the base upward, so that it would be a bit more useful. Also preserves a bit more thickness in the piece as a whole, which it needs as 2 4/4 boards. Inside top has a button in the middle which extends down a bit to give some wood for one and the outside top shows the pencil mark where I would add a finial if I were going to. Should I? Going to try it out on SWMBO after leveling the sides to one another, but I'm leaning toward a finial.

Oh yes, the collar is a good thing to keep in your bag of tricks for pieces where you want minimum grain interruption. You can collar up and hollow down with the loss of less than 1/8". Makes an easier rematch.

[Mark Pruitt]

George, that's a very interesting piece and well thought out. I would definitely go for a finial, preferably of a dark contrasting species.

[David Walser]

George, how did you reverse chuck the blank onto your lathe? As for the finish, I'd like a finial on top (more like a knob for taking the lid off) with a smallish foot on the bottom. Looks like a very interesting piece.

[George Tokarev]

The reversals are done with expanding dovetail holds, except for the one tenon you see on what became the top. Since I get best average with a smooth hold, there's no runout to speak of even with all the reversals and rechucking.

I'm thinking cherry burl finial, which would have be a bit thick, because of the structure, or a long grain thinner walnut. I've got a few pieces of walnut left from Missouri. The wife will be the final arbiter, of course.