A new technique for me.

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Ed Pretty

One of a new series: "...another man's treasure"

I have seen turnings done using combinations of centers much like the process I’ll describe here but not with this result. The final product is a combination of multi-center turning and hollow turning.

I always check the “dollar bin” at my wood supplier in the off chance there is a gem worth picking up. Of course I always find something. Not long ago I found some off-cut slabs from a burl with a natural edge and a lovely line between new and older wood. The shape of the piece worked for a small bowl but the grain direction was all wrong. I had no idea what I would get out of them but I knew I would find something. After sitting on  my bench for a while it hit me one day what I could make from them. The process would involve turning a lot of air, so the lessons learned from Mark Sfirri were going to be very valuable.

The process

I tested my idea on a piece of scrap (yet another piece from the dollar bin) and came up with a process. I have included a series of photos below so that it is easier to follow the process. The first order of business was to make a vase shape by turning it between centers as shown. After getting a suitable vase shape in profile I needed to give it some curved sides so turned it between centers laterally. Choosing the height of that center seemed critical so I chose the same height as the wide spot on the vertical axis. That seemed to make sense and in the end was clearly the right choice. This was somewhat tricky since I wanted both sides to have a symmetrical curve and accurately marked vertical and horizontal centers was the key. There was also the issue of balance since the lateral center chosen was anything but the center of the height of the piece. Although it seemed horribly out of whack it wasn’t too bad since the shape gave it almost equal mass both sides of the center; I was able to get it up to about 900 rpm which was quite suitable.

Turning the first side was a cinch. At first it seemed the second side was going to be difficult, but as often is the case, the solution appears just when it is needed. I had drawn center lines everywhere including on the vertical turned faces. By stepping off the distance on both sides of center using dividers to measure the completed side I was able to make a series of dots along the uncompleted side making a mirror image of the first side. By simply  stopping the lathe after each pass to check my progress, I was able to replicate the first side. It became evident through the process that accurately marked centers were of utmost importance when a symmetrical shape is the goal. It did occur to me however, that if one wished, there is no reason the whole thing couldn’t be asymmetrical, producing a whole other look.

The piece looked and felt top heavy and considering that most people presented with a vase shape would expect to see some sort of a hollow interior, I decided to hollow it. Obviously I couldn’t follow  the profile form without cutting it in half, so I hollowed it using the curved sides as a guide. This lightened the top and added a little interest in general. Once hollowed I was able to turn the base using the mandrel that I use to turn the base on my hollow forms. By turning a concave base I was able to replicate the curve theme giving it a nice curve on the bottom as well as a bit of lift to give it a lighter look overall.

I was so pleased with the result that the last time I was at the supplier I rummaged deep into the dollar bin again and came up with several more gems – obviously from the same burl! Clearly no one else had seen the potential.  It’s a good thing I found some more because these three have been added to the “That’s not leaving the house” series. 🙂

As always,  I encourage your comments and questions, so please refer to the tag line at the bottom of the article to post a comment.

 

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Arts at Darts art show

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Ed Pretty

 

Ready for the crowds.

Last year we participated in the Mickelson Art Festival in  south Surrey. One of the many visitors to our booth was Linda Stanley Wilson, who is a volunteer at the Darts Hill garden in South Surrey. They are a large demonstration garden with scheduled visiting dates for the public. One of these dates includes an art show in which she invited me to participate. There were 10 artists in total at the event  and we were the only wood turning booth, so we felt quite honoured.

We recognized many visitors from the Mickelson festival who brought friends specifically to see our wares. Our booth was crammed most of the time but no sales other than a few spheres and a commissioned bowl being picked up by the buyer. There was, however, tremendous interest in our work. Sales at other artists’ booths were for small items as well. I think the most important aspect of this event for us was the exposure. It paid off last year and I believe it will be even more significant this time. Many folks were interested in the pieces, just not ready to purchase at that event. Lots of cards given out. Hopefully some buyers after the fact.

I highly recommend attending an art festival or sale (as opposed to a craft fair). The exposure is to a more discerning type of crowd rather than the “bargain hunters” who haunt craft fairs.

As always, I encourage your comments and questions, so please refer to the tag line at the bottom of the article to post a comment.

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Supersized hollowform completed

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Ed Pretty

Elaine's hollowform. Bowl gouge included for perspective.

In an earlier post I discussed the construction of the tools I needed for turning large hollowforms. I had roughed out the form prior to drying which was to be the next step in the process. I feared the piece might crack. Much to my dismay, the drying process initialized a crack  at the opening as well as some small cracks on the bottom. The top crack would affect the appearance while the bottom cracks were minute and were to be turned away in the finishing process.

Cap detail

To say the least, I was upset. I was able to halt the cracking with CA glue, then watching it a couple of times a day while the piece continued to dry. Finally it had lost enough water that the weight stabalized and was ready to finish turn; about three months, as I had anticipated.

RED! applied.

During that time I thought of various ways in which to turn this disaster into a “design opportunity”. Originally, I had planned on making a cap to close in the opening much like “Black on Black” and “Blue Planet” (see gallery). Continuing on that idea, I envisioned wings or leaves eminating from the cap and finally settled on the design in the photograph, encorporating a bit of texturing to add some interest and contrast with the gloss finish. The shape of the cap also corrected the line of the form that had turned too sharply at the top when turning much of the crack away. In the end I actually felt that the final product was more dramatic than the original concept. To say the least, I was very happy with “the save”.

RED! sanded back.

The original blank weighed 40 lbs. After initial turning it weighed 10 lbs. After drying (loosing about 5 lbs. of water) and finish turning, the piece weighed 4 lbs. – 10 percent of its original weight.

The customer specified a reddy orange/yellow colour combination that I had applied to a Zen Candle that she had purchased earlier. After bleaching the piece twice I applied a red dye which was then sanded back, exposing new wood. Yellow was applied to achieve the final result. If you notice there is an airbrush in the photos. I have had issues with colour contamination in my applicators and dye containers. Using an airbrush eliminates contact with applicators that pick up the original colour from the work. The cap was painted black and textured after turning and carving to shape. Both were finished with (I forget how) many coats of Wipe On Poly.

Yellow applied.

On a sad note, the remainder of the wood that I bought for the piece cracked severely. There is enough to make two more pieces the same size so that is quite a loss, however I have another “save” in mind that may make them equally as spectacular. Here’s hoping!

As always, I encourage your comments and questions, so please refer to the tag line at the bottom of the article to post a comment.

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Managing wood movement in a built-up piece

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Ed Pretty

The other day I received an email from a person who visited this blog then contacted me about possibly repairing a turning. She described the problem as a wooden band coming unglued at the top of the bowl and wondered if it could be reglued. I took that to be an inlayed banding detail and agreed to look at the problem.   

She lives in Vancouver and had purchased a turned bowl (appears to be a salad bowl)  from a woodturner in New York, hence her query to me instead of the original turner. She sent me some photos of the bowl (unfortunately I couldn’t copy them from the email) after I had said that the first step would be to determine the reason for the separation. As soon as I opened her email with the pictures I knew what had caused the problem. The loose piece wasn’t a strip of inlayed banding at all. Rather, it was the top layer of a built-up bowl. The thick-walled bowl had been constructed of laminated (not segmented) wood approximately 3/4″ – 1″ thick, the grain in each layer shifted 90 degrees away from the layers adjacent. In addition, the pith was present in one of the boards, lending anything but an artistic appearance to the piece. Obviously the differing expansion ratios between layers had finally broken the bond causing the separation. From the appearance of the finish it is possible the bowl had been washed multiple times which may have sped things up a bit. I told her there was no point repairing the damage since it would not only happen again but would likely continue until the bowl was a stack of half-rings on the table.  

The contruction of this bowl was a rookie mistake that was bound to cause this problem sooner or later. The finish sanding was obviously done with 80 grit or rougher which matched the piece with the pith in it, but that’s another story. Layering wood so that the grain is alternately aligned 90 degrees to the next is bound to stess the glue joint as the wood expands and contracts. If the bowl is thin-walled, bending will probably occur, but in this case the bowl had very thick walls cauing the bond to break. Because the wood expands in width significantly more than length, each layer will fight with the next every time there is a change in humidity. If this piece had never been washed it would still have happened; it would just have taken a bit longer. I suspect there may have been another issue as well. If the built up boards were glued together as actual boards in a stack, the glue joint would have been very poor since it needs more pressure than normal shop methods of clamping will provide. Joints like that are best done two together then one added at a time after that. Only very heavy duty hydraulic presses can supply enough force to glue several pieces together at once.  

There is a method of laminated turning called “bowl from a board”. This is a method of ripping a full board in half lengthwise then bandsawing half circles at an angle from the two pieces. The half circles are glued together to make full rings then restacked so that they form a conical blank, gluing them one at a time, with the joints 90 degrees apart so that each is supported by the next (obviously what this turner was trying to do). This works for two main reasons: first, it is all the same piece of wood so humidity is the same throughout so the relative expansion is reduced somewhat. Second, the walls are typically much thinner than the example I was looking at, so the glue joints are allowed to flex enough to stay together. That being said, I have seen some of these come apart as well.   

Segmented turners deal with this issue in every piece they make. While attending a demo by Malcolm Tibbets I learned that to completely avoid separation due to conflicting expansion rates, the grain in all the pieces in a built up piece must always be oriented in the same way. They can be end grain or flat grain but must be all the same orientation. Each piece is of course shaped like a piece of pie within each ring – not flat boards like the high-school job that I was looking at. He suggested going one step further by turning a groove in the bottom ring to hold the bottom like a panel in a panel constructed door so that it could move freely. Malcolm brought a couple of failures that had grain in opposing directions to prove his point.  

lime wax

The segmented holly ring is thin enough to move with the single piece of ash used for the main body.

 

I am not a segmented turner at all but I do glue wood together from time to time for aesthetic reasons or to reduce waste. I turned a lidded vessel from ash with a trim ring and foot made from segmented holly. Malcolm assured me that in this case the rings were thin enough that they would flex with the movement of the main flat-grained body, so I breathed a sigh of relief – because it had already been sold. Malcolm’s lessons have paid off by making me aware of the significance of conflicting wood expansion, so hopefully someone in New York won’t be calling another turner there to repair one of my turnings.  

As always, I encourage your comments and questions, so please refer to the tag line at the bottom of the article to post a comment.

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A very satisfied customer

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Ed Pretty

Debutante.

Patti Houston of Fluff Rentals and Fluff for Keeps commissioned a piece a while ago and we delivered it to her office/warehouse last week. Several gals work for her there, interior designers all. Patti was very happy with  “Debutante” (by her request it was to be a surprise) and the girls there were as well. Kris, Patti’s right hand gal, handles their blogging and posted a comment on the piece (actually pieces). A very flattering comment, especially coming from a creative group such as Patti and her team. People like this who appreciate my work make the long hours worthwhile.

Thank you to Patti for all your support and trusting my judgement. Something not given often and something I take very seriously. I am honoured to have been given the opportunity to make something to someone with such discriminating tastes.

http://rentfluff.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/amazing-work/

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Supersized hollow form

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Ed Pretty

New hollowing rig.

Many years ago I watched a deep hollowing demonstration by the late Frank Sudol. Sudols’ forte was very large, very thin pierced hollow forms. I took a class using his boring tools and found it quite easy. I started down the road of building said boring tool and related equipment but that was interrupted by my domestic restructuring.

Fast forward to the present. I was commissioned by a customer who liked my hollow forms to make something bigger than my normal fare. Eighteen to twenty four inches bigger! I told her I wasn’t set up for it and that figured wood like that would be hard to come by but I would look into it. My wood sleuths kept their eyes open for suitable figured maple for the job and one day I got a call. They had what I needed! Drat. Now I would have to out my money where my mouth was and build the tooling needed for the job.

35 pounds of shavings/10 pounds of vessel

My customer is great. She fronted me the money for the wood and said she would wait any length of time it took to build the tools, turn the piece and let it dry. How cool is that?! It took two weeks off and on to build the steady rest, get the boring bar machined, get a drill extension machined and fab the works. Now I am in the deep hollowing business, I guess.

I finished the hollowform today and it’s drying in the basement. How long that takes is undetermined of course. The wall is 3/4″ due to the 9″ diameter so it will take a while; not the 2 mil wall thickness that Sudol did. That meant that I had to measure the walls rather than use light to gauge thickness. I put silica gell beads inside to help keep the drying rate of the thicker bottom even with the thinner walls, so we’ll see how that works out.

Semi finished hollow form 22-1/2" tall

Once dry – and as long as it doesn’t crack – I’ll re-turn it (including taking that ugly steady rest land off), dye it the special orange/yellow she likes so much and finish it. Here’s hoping.

As always, I encourage your comments and questions, so please refer to the tag line at the bottom of the article to post a comment.

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Bee tea. My first tea pot.

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Ed Pretty

Bee Tea

 Our guild president offered a challenge to turn a tea pot after Art Liestman did a demo on the pots made by woodturners. This is my effort. The body is birch burl, the spout and top/dipper are birch, the legs are yew and the wings/handle are ash. I apologize for the line in the pictures. My digital camera packed it in and these were the first pictures where it showed up. 🙁

Tea pots have become the standard used by woodturners to demonstrate their personal style. The tea pot is recognized and used universally, therefore making it the ideal, if not somewhat improbable, vehicle. Naturally they are not functional, but that is irrelivant. In my case, colour and figured wood play a dominant role in my work

Bee Tea and accessories

 so it had to be “in your face and out there”.  Aside from that I also wanted to showcase as much as I had learned from visiting demonstrators to encourage other turners to make the most of these wonderful opportunities. In this case I drew on the multi-centered style of Mark Sfirri for the legs and top (actually, a honey dipper disguised as a top),  Dave Schweitzer’s teachings for the hollowform and Mike Hosaluk’s procedure of deconstructing and reconstructing turnings for the spout. Although not visible, an epoxy trick learned from Marilyn Campbell helped out on the very tight bend on the back end of the steam-bent handle/wings. I attempted to give the piece some “attitude” by leaning it forward and to one side, twisting the spout and kicking the stinger up at a jaunty angle. Trying to have as much going on a possible, I made a tea bag out of dyed birch shavings and cheesecloth, something I haven’t seen in a teapot yet.

Bee tea heading south

This project took about a month of on and off work and I enjoyed every minute of it. I think I had more fun doing this piece than anything else I have turned. I’ve had pleanty of ideas spin off from this so I doubt if this is the last. 

As always, comments are encouraged and appreciated. Please see the tag line below to make a comment.

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It’s time to lime (but not your lawn)

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Ed Pretty

A Black Tie Affair. Painted oak with lime wax

Recently I have received requests from a few other turners for tips on using lime wax. There’s not a lot of literature on the process that I am aware of except a book that I have myself; “Colouring Techniques for Woodturners” by Jan Sanders. I picked the book up about 12 years ago from Lee Valley and I believe they still sell it. For me it has been an excellent resource and motivator for the treatment of wood post-turning. Because I seem to be getting more calls and emails about liming recently I thought I would write a post about it so I could simply direct folks to this site – so if sent you, “Welcome”. If I didn’t, “Welcome”. 🙂  

For the purpose of this explanation I will use the terms “lime wax” or “liming” for simplicity. In truth, it is possible to apply all kinds of colours of wax that aren’t white and I usually refer to them as “tint waxes” for clarity, but the process is the same. Also, lime wax isn’t really wax, but rather some kind of very fine powder (I don’t think it’s lime, but rather some kind of oxide) in an oil base while coloured waxes are actually wax with colour added.  

Gypsy Queen. Dyed elm with gold tint wax.

To start off with, my approach to colouringwood is something that I do to emphasise grain characteristics such as the figure in wood or perhaps grain lines that naturally have significant contrast (sap wood and heart wood, for example) or just to get away from a bland brown (contrary to popular belief, I don’t think all wood is bland).  Although the wood may be coloured, liming is used to emphasizes grain direction and pattern. “Gypsy Queen” is an example where both dying and liming are used to enhance both a grain characteristic and grain pattern. The process requires a ring-porous wood for best effect.  Ring-porous wood is wood that has the pores isolated into rings rather than dispersed throughout the wood as does diffuse-porous wood. The rings of pores, once treated with a contrasting tint or lime wax, stand out and become the focal point of the piece. Ring-porous woods include ash, oak, elm, hickory, chestnut. I’m sure there are more but these are all species that I have used successfully. In such cases as “Black Tie Affair” I have eliminated the colour of the wood entirely, making the grain lines the dominant feature of the piece. In some I have coloured the wood with dye, keeping the nature of the grain intact but added contrasting or complimenting tint wax for accent. Still others, I have not coloured the wood at all but used black wax to enhance the grain.  

None of this is effective at all on diffuse-porous wood. I once tried to use lime wax on black walnut, thinking the contrast might look good. Walnut has zillions of little fissures throughout the wood. All it did was make the piece look messy and totally ruined it. So… no diffuse-porous wood, Grasshopper.   

Midas. Painted Elm with gold tint wax.

The order of business for liming is to turn the piece, finish sand, open the grain, apply a finish and then apply the lime wax. It’s important that all the steps in this procedure are followed and that each is attended to with great detail. First: turning and sanding. Any anomalies in the turning will stand out like a sore thumb. In the same way that grain lines are emphasized, so is tear out and undesirable marks from poor tool control. Sanding is critical and if any dye is applied that will raise the grain, I always raise the grain first then resand prior to using the dye so that doesn’t cause a problem later. Opening the grain is a key step that you probably haven’t done before in other finishes. Using a small brass brush (or very vigorous work with a stiff plastic brush), thoroughly  follow every grain line, brushing all bits if sanding dust and wood fibers from the pores. If you miss any it will be like a neon bald patch when it is way too late to do anything about it. You will notice that there is an incredible amount of debris removed from the pores if you put a piece of white paper under your work. If you are going to colour the wood, now is when you apply dye or paint. You will notice that not even dye penetrates the pores because of the surface tension of the liquid. If using paint, spray rather than brush it on. I prefer lacquer – mostly because that’s all I’ve used – so other bases may be OK but you will have to experiment on your own. 

There seems to be a misunderstanding that the procedure is to apply the lime wax before putting any finish on the piece. Do not apply lime wax before finishing. If you do there will be no opportunity to apply any further finish,  but most critically, if you have applied a dye and it has not been sealed with a finish, the lime wax will pull the colour into it and you won’t get the shocking white contrast, just a tint of the colour that you applied. I know because I did that my first time.  

Outer Planet. Dyed elm with red tint wax.

 So you have the piece turned, sanded, pores opened and colour applied. Some have been hesitant to apply the finish before waxing thinking that the pores would be sealed up and unable to accept wax. Nothing could be further from the truth. When the finish is applied it actually makes the pores deeper and wider but still leaves a “key” at the bottom. The trick is to stop before the pores get “round bottomed” so that the wax won’t key into it. After finishing a couple of pieces you get to know what to look for. If you don’t believe that the pores remain during finishing, think about any time you tried to finish a piece with deep grain pores and tried to fill them with finish. The same thing happens here only it’s a good thing. Understand that a rough finish like deep orange peel or simple roughness due to too much thinner will retain the wax and the result is very unattractive. If you have orange peel or roughness, sand it back before you get too many coats and finish off with a good last coat.  

Untitled. Dyed (yes, it's blue dye) chestnut with lime wax.

Once the finish is complete it’s time to apply the lime wax. Follow the instructions! Wax on – wax off. Leave it on for only a few minutes like you would your car. If you wait too long it is very hard to remove the excess. Remove excess lime wax with neutral wax and you’re done. Liberon of course recommends their clear furniture wax but I have used all kinds and even neutral shoe polish works well.  

Storm Brewing. Dyed oak with gold tint. Note that you have to be prepared to live with cracks (about 4 o'clock)

I have been asked where to get some of the supplies for lime waxing. Lime wax itself is made by Liberon and available through Craft Supply and Woodchuckers. They also make a gilded tint wax as I recall. I use coloured wax that I got at a shoe repair store. I bought gold, silver, red, blue and yellow (metallics and primary colours). Black shoe polish works great for, of all things, black. 🙂 I have spoken to a turner who used white shoe polish as a substitute for lime wax although I am not sure he used wax or the paint-on type used for the old saddle shoes. His piece looked very nice but you’re on your own for that one. I have also experimented with paint  as a tint but not enough to comment on it here. The brass brushes are available at paint stores. They look like brass tooth brushes. I have used a brush that I got at the grocery store that had plastic and brass bristles; it worked very well but I had to work pretty hard to get what I wanted.  

Good luck and have fun. As you can see, liming gets a bit addicting, so be careful.  

As always, I encourage your comments and questions, so please refer to the tag line at the bottom of the article to post a comment.

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Art as utility

Posted on December 24, 2010 by Ed Pretty

Today a potter-friend posted some pictures of some pottery that he had fired in a campfire while he was on holidays. My first thought was how great the pieces looked and how they conveyed a message of ancient wonders. In his comment he noted that he was only able to use a wax finish rather than the usual glaze to preserve the random carbon patterns left behind by the campfire. He said, and I quote, “Unfortunately, I can’t put a clear glaze over the finish as that would destroy the carbon patterns, so I have used a shiny wax to finish them, and they are decorative only”. The sentence was preceded with the word “unfortunately” so it worried me that he felt that his work was only worthy if it had some utility as a vase or something else “useful”.  The pieces were fantastic in their own right; organic and just screaming of “ancient discoveries”.  I posted back asking if he felt they were of lesser value being “decorative only”. He assured me he was concerned more with longevity rather than utility when referring to the finish so I was satisfied that he hadn’t fallen from grace as an artist.   

"Diabolo" by Pascal Oudet

 This brings to light something about what woodturning has evolved into in the last 50 or so years. Although we still turn salad bowls and stair ballisters, things turned on the lathe have become art and many woodturners have taken on the veil of artist rather than solely craftsman. The public as a general rule accepts what we do simply as a craft and nothing more, therefore view our work as being of a utilitarian nature.  At various guild demonstrations and at an art festival that I attended last summer I have had many discussions with “the great unwashed” about turnings that they feel have no particular use. For example, a lay person typically seeing a hollowform that appears vase-like feels it has been made to hold flowers. They are astonished that water cannot be put in the “vase”. During the art festival I had this discussion with a lady admiring one of my hollowforms. Just as I thought I was getting through to her, she allowed  that perhaps the piece would be suitable for dried flowers. In frustration, my response to her was “Well, if you think you can improve it by doing that, then be my guest”.  That stopped her in her tracks, finally realizing the point I had been trying to make in our discussion. I had noted earlier that all the paintings at the festival would never be considered suitable for serving trays just because they were flat and had a rim. She didn’t catch it then, but now understood the significance of that comment. Perhaps if she had noticed that each of my pieces had a title, she may have better understood what she was looking at.   

Clearly, Pascal Oudet’s “Diabolo” can’t even hold light, let alone water. Sometimes the only thing that a vessel needs to hold is your attention. In my case, that’s all they are intended to do. Even though woodturnings may have been attractive, their primary purpose for centuries has been of a utilitarian nature. Therefore, at this point in time we should expect people to think  only that woodturnings are craft items meant for utilitarian purposes. We need to turn it around. I think as woodturners it should be our mission to help people understand one of two things: either that not every woodturning has to be utilitarian or – my take – that pleasing the eye and stirring the soul are also utilitarian functions. It’s akin to helping people understanding that paintings aren’t expected to double as serving trays just because they are flat.   

As always, I encourage your comments and questions, so please refer to the tag line at the bottom of the article to post a comment.

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Turned box for surprise gift requires a profile gauge

Posted on December 21, 2010 by Ed Pretty

I won’t say what the surprise is going to be because the recipient might read this. All I’ll say is that the request came from someone wanting to have a turned box shaped like an egg to hold a very special gift. The egg will be wrapped in a Kinder Surpise wrapper so the box had to be the same shape and size as a Kinder Surprise egg for the wrapper to fit.   

Walnut Kinder egg complete with profile gauge and original model

Getting the profile exact was a matter of cutting a pattern out of paper that fit the egg, then transferring that to a piece of aluminum sheet to use as a profile gauge. There was a bit of trial and error involved but I finally got a pattern that worked. The specifications included a wall thickness of 1/8″ or less so I considered a profile gauge for the inside but decided I would try the freehand route first. In the end that was satisfactory, having to turn 5 practice pieces in all. 

I turned a couple out of scrap wood to refine the procedure and the cuts then moved on to more decent material. One was a washout shape-wise, two were turned from maple burl which ended up with surprise bark inclusions in the wrong places. The final one – the charm – was turned from some figured black walnut. That was cool because another of the requirements was that it should look like chocolate.  

The procedure was basic box turning with a rabetted joint. I sized the blank between centers to about a .025″ larger diameter than the finished piece, then used a parting tool to cut the rabbet about 1/16″ (half the wall thickness) smaller than the finished diameter. A thin parting tool was used to part the two halves, leaving a tiny portion on the female side to indicate the inside diameter of the rabbet and the rabbet itself on the other side. I mounted both pieces seperately in a chuck to hollow them out, using a vernier caliper to measure the depth but approximating the inside shape by feel. The male side was turned first so that it could be used as a gauge for the female side. Once the other side was hollowed and the fit was satisfactory I remounted them together between centers to turn the final shape. The profile gauge was made to fit a blank with a 1/2″ tenon on both ends and the joint was marked on the profile gauge as well (see photo). Lining the gauge up with the joint, the ends of the egg were marked and a parting tool used to cut the 1/2″ tenons. After turning to the finished diameter and roughing the shape, the final shape could be refined until the gauge rested on the tenons. After sanding, the tenons were reduced and the waste cut off with a saw. Hand carving and sanding the nubs finished the piece.  

I have turned a few eggs and a few boxes in my time but this is the first box shaped like an egg. It was fun and didn’t take too long at all. The burl eggs will stay in my office so they weren’t a waste even though I won’t be able to wrap them with Kinder Surprise foil wrappers.   

As always, I encourage your comments and questions, so please refer to the tag line at the bottom of the article to post a comment.

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