Somehow I've found time in between making ornaments to make some random gifts for the steadily incoming Christmas. This will be my first Christmas that I am able to take advantage of my lathe to save myself from having to go shopping for as many gifts. These are just a few of the ridiculous amount of projects I have to finish up in the next week.
This is a Big Leaf Maple dish for my girlfriend's mother. I'm starting to feel the same way about Mike Smith's BLM that a lot of you folks feel about his Claro. It is a dream to turn and finish, and it's very hard to beat the figure in this wood. I've yet to turn a piece with curl and birdseye. This piece has tones of both. It's about 9" x 1.5" and finished with WOP and HUT.
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This is a Sassafras duck call that will probably end up going to an uncle. Of course, the sassafras was great to smell while turning but that was about the only part worth talking about. The grain is a little bit of a pain to sand smooth...reminds me of some red oak I've turned. This call is probably a little too light in color to go out into the swamp, but I was happy with the form. Finished with 8 layers of CA and wet sanded to 12000.
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Last are a set of pens for my great aunt and uncle. These are the second and third pens that I've ever turned and I can certainly see how people get addicted. After a get a little more comfortable with them, I'll be moving to some higher quality pen kits, but these satin Slimlines actually look good and hold up well for the price. I was hoping they would come out with a bit more distinction between the two, as the one on the left is Big Leaf Maple and the right is highly curled Silver Maple. The photo doesn't do the differences in the wood justice, but I would have liked to darken one of them looking back. Finished with 6 layers of CA and HUT.
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Thanks for looking guys, and of course, any comments and critiques are welcome! : )
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