Yesterday was a no work day due to the snow so I got a free shop day. Got the shop up to a perfect 60 degrees. This jar is made from Brazilian Cherry and Sycamore. It is so smooth that it demanded a high gloss finish — which I normally don’t do. The bottle is to give size perspective (plus it was really cold and refreshing since it was in the unheated room of the shop for days).
I need a salt cellar to keep on my stove. I do a lot of cooking and when I found these I just wanted one. This is a prototype and the next will be a bigger diameter but to experiment I just picked up a scrap of walnut and put a purpleheart top on it. It has a swivel pin and magnets to close it. The next will be more decorative but this one is functional and I will be putting it use immediately!More Views and comments
One of the best gifts you can receive is lumber – you just can’t go wrong with that. My son came toting 2 nice cherry boards Christmas. He thinks I am a hard one to gift but he hit it on the head with this. I have already tore into that wood and have several projects in progress. I have totally depleted my stock of lidded pots thanks to the giving season so I need to build my stores back up.
I did go out and buy myself a dust collector for the shop — that was my gift from me to me and to my health. I am on vacation this week so set up will be interspersed between having fun turning.More Views and comments
Sycamore is one of my favorite woods since I found a pallet made from it a couple of years ago. I don’t normally make vessels primarily out of white wood except for an accent or feature ring but who knows. A friend trimmed a great big Sycamore tree and brought me some very nice sized branches. 
They sat there for a few weeks but I noticed just a small amount of checking so decided it was time to debark and seal them before losing the whole lot. I did turn him a nice little vase which I dried with the microwave technique. I was able to get the moisture level down to about 9% which is as low as most of the wood I turn. Time will tell but I turned it 2 weeks ago and it has not warped or cracked yet.
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 just began selling my pieces at the Green Phoenix Gallery in Easton. I was honored to be displayed along with such amazing work from mostly local artists. I started off with the pieces in earlier posts – the Cherry Face Off, Wee Little Honey Pot, Turned Lidded Vessel on one previously unposted piece – The Purpleheart banded lidded vessel below.
Even though I hate to let things go I find if you let the nicest pieces around you have no reason to do better. When nice ones leave the shop you need to replace them with something just as nice or, hopefully, even better.
This bowl is turned from Brazilian Cherry while the lid is turned from American Cherry. The properties of both are very different but they work well together. The bowl is very dense (and heavy). I don’t like to turn it too thin since the last time I tried that the bowl cracked. The spindle is a little piece of purple heart (I have a ton of purple heart spindle stock!). The bowl is about 6″ in diameter with an oil finish. I have been using mineral oil on the inside of my vessels to accentuate the colors but still remain non-toxic and odor-free.More Views and comments
My wife likes the little birds that nest on the front porch and we do have a couple of small birdhouses out there already but her birthday is next week and I wanted to surprise her with something that didn’t take up more counter space in the house 🙂 I turned this one in the shape of an acorn from a sycamore limb (a big limb!) with a walnut top. There is a little drain hole in the bottom. I wasn’t sure how big the hole should be so I took a wild guess. Also the sycamore was still a bit wet so hopefully it won’t warp too much. I did nuke the wood in the microwave a few times after rough turning.
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?