I have some advice for you wood turners — it you want to give nice turned items to friends and family for the Holiday, don’t pick something that takes hours and hours to make! Everyone loved these lidded pots and I wanted them all to get one but gosh, I didn’t take into consideration how much time it would take. I should be turning right up to Christmas Eve to get the ones I need done by Christmas day. Fortunately some people we don’t see for a few days later.  I am still working on the big pile of walnut. I picked up some Walnut Danish Oil this weekend and boy does that look good! After I get these done I am going to do improvements to the shop.More Views and comments

I liked the look of the honey pots so I decided to try a smaller one (since I found a piece of wood that size in the bin). This pot looks just like the larger ones only smaller — but take the same amount of time to produce! The bigger ones are more useful — for holding tea bags and the like but I’m sure this will hold something. Measures about 4.5″ in diameter and 5″ tall. The grain was just spectacular in this one.

It’s a long weekend so I’m sure I’ll come up with something more clever to do with the accent band on the next one. Limited shop time is a barrier to exploring new ideas!

This was a great week for free wood. It started out with the pile of Purpleheart you see sitting on my table saw. It was some cut-offs from something a friend was building. I didn’t even know you could get it this thick! This is some seriously hard wood and I had only used small pieces before as accents.

Two days later someone I work with brought me a big pile of Sycamore – which I really love to turn. These were from a huge limb and are still wet so I have to contain my enthusiasm for months while I wait for them to dry.  And then today someone else brought me some spalted walnut which I won’t have to wait on. It is a bit checked on the ends but we’ll see what we get out of it.

I did want to turn a piece of that purpleheart over the weekend so I made a small lidded box for the guy who gave it to me. The pot is much thicker than I would normally make it but to tell the truth I got tired of sharpening my gouge. The box itself is about 4″ tall and the lid is cherry. I took a plug cutter and cut out a 3/8″ plug from the purpleheart and inserted it into the handle which worked out pretty good. The chatoyance on this piece is spectacular. Maybe I should keep it for myself?

I have more fun turning these bowls than anything else. They are piling up at this point so I need to find a place to sell them. If you are interested, contact me. This one is from a Cherry slab that my son and one of his friends left at my house. The banding is curly maple and the rays in each piece are phenomenal. Just because I am a big fan of walnut I had to inset a button in the lid to add just a hint of darkness. I think on the next one I’ll go back to the finial type lid but for now this one is hand-friendly.

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I had a friend bring me some Holly branches (thick ones) I cut them into goblet length blanks and sealed the ends. This one little piece was left and was already beginning to crack so I thought, what the hell, and went ahead and turned a goblet bowl. After rough turning I put in the microwave for 2 minutes, let it cool and then hit it again. I was able to bring the moisture content down from about 24% to 9% which seems to be acceptable. It is very thin and has not yet started to crack or warp so I call that a success. This is some very white wood and looks good with the darker stem. I wish I had gone a bit longer but I didn’t really expect the piece to turn out.

This vessel is quite large and came out of the board of walnut I have been working for several weeks. Even though I turn a lot of lidded pots I like to make each one unique. I had never turned one with this shape before and it did present it’s own set of challenges. The maple accent was a nice feature but I think the lid really sets it off. Perfect vessel for storing tea bags and the like.

…deserves another. Several people wanted my Honey Pot from a couple of weeks ago, but so did I and I made it. So friends and neighbors, this one is up for grabs. I used the same basic technique and same big assed slab of walnut as I did on the first but I put 3 bands in the middle with just a shadow of very light veneer between each section. It’s all an experiment. I do like the way it turned out and more will be coming at some point.