Curly maple tool handle.













Turned on three axes with a 120 degree twist.















Olive hollow form











Approx 5.5" x 5"













Seized air compressor piston.

















Carob roughout.













Approx 7" x 3.5"













Figured maple winged bowl.













Slightly downsloping wings.













Bottom view with a bark edge on the one side.

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Progression

European Olive (olea europaea) blank, roughly 11" X 6". Half dry and half green. This piece was cut back in December and was left outside unprotected.











Outside shaped and the hollowing started. It was slow going as the blank was extremely out of balance because of the voids and the variation in water content.















Hollowing mostly done. I was having a hard time getting into the outside corner so I gave up for the evening.
















Hollowing complete and the initial sanding done. I've set it aside for the time being to dry out a bit before I resume the sanding and finishing process. I may still take one last cut (famous last words) on the bottom half as It's still a bit thicker and heavier than I'd like.

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Next project

I think I found my next project. This is the useable portion of an Olive stump I got a couple weeks ago. I cut off the cracked portions and all of the various protrusions that Olive trees tend to get around the base. I plan to do a fairly large hollow form and expect 1 or 2 significant voids to remain.









This is an extreme example, but this type of growth is typical for Olive trees. It's uncommon to find one with a round or even oblong trunk; unlike most other trees.












Rough cut this piece is 11" diameter and 6" thick. If everything goes well I expect it to finish up about 10" x 5". Its about half dry, the stump was cut about 6 months ago and had been setting outside since. There would have been more useable wood but there was a deep chainsaw cut in the other half of the stump. With the other half being cut it only yielded a blank roughly 6" diameter and 4" thick.

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Olive weekend

This is the last of my fresh olive. I don't make new year's resolutions but I am going to try to tackle a good portion of my woodpile this winter so I can get better organized.













These 3 were turned Friday evening. The 2 pieces on the left are the 2 halves of a small crotch. The piece on the far left was turned natural edge, the piece on the center was turned in the normal orientation. The piece on the right is calabash shaped and also normal side grain orientation.










2 more bowls Saturday night and a bowl and 3 spindle blanks Sunday night. I'm not certain what the spindles will end of as, possibly lidded boxes or hollow forms.













I think next I'll start to tackle the rest of the Mountain Mahogany I got this summer, I also still have some Sissoo that may still be somewhat green.

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Dynamic duo

Olive is one of my favorite woods to use, probably in the top 3. On nights like tonight it's easy to see why. It turns well, smells great, and looks fantastic.












Tonight i turned a pair of olive nested roughouts. I haven't cored any bowls lately and it took a while to shake the cobwebs. I had considered demonstrating coring for my January demo but tonight confirmed my decision to do lidded boxes instead.

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Post Christmas

My wife and kids and I exchanged gifts at my grandparent's house on Christmas Eve because my uncle and his wife were in town. My grandparents are the only close family we have locally do we usually spend the holidays with them. That left Christmas day open so I spent a couple hours in the shop.









These Olive hollow forms had their exteriors roughed out a couple weeks ago, the insides were rough hollowed on Christmas day. As with most of my turnings they are now bagged and shelved for at least 6 months.












I'm preparing for a lidded boxes demo next month and saw a left over piece of Banksia pod. Instantly I knew what I wanted to do. One of the boxes I'm planning to demo is this style, I call them pill boxes and they're made with an inlay of contrasting wood; in this case Holly inlay in the Banksia pod body and lid.









These are kind of fun to make, I've done them in Box Elder Burl, Olive, Walnut, Myrtle, mesquite, Honey Locust, and more. Inlays are usually African Blackwood or Holly. Sometimes I make a separate handle, others the lid/handle are a single piece.












The body is mostly round. There is a small depression in the bottom center so it will sit flat and stable. This was my first time making a box out of Banksia, it won't be my last.

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Olive the other reindeer

I picked up some Olive from a friend last weekend. Tonight I started roughing out some of the pieces. This is 1 medium sized log cut into 3 sections.










The sections were all mounted between centers and rough turned on the outside. They're temporarily stored in a garbage bag and will be rough hollowed in the next few days.










The rest of my night was spent helping my neighbor with some Christmas presents. They'll both be very personalized to match the personalities and hobbies. The older boy is into drama so were making a pair of drama masks. To do this we turned a modified cone that we'll cut in half to give us the 2 masks that we need.








We talked about leaving them solid but I wanted to have them be closer to actual masks so we ended up hollowing out the form so they're about 1/2" thick. We still have a bit more turning to do then we can sand them and cut them in half.













We're still talking about how to do the faces. I don't think we should cut out the eyes and mouth, I'm leaning towards some relief carving, i think he's leaning towards doing the faces via woodburning.

For the younger son we'll be making a football. We may end up leaving it solid but I'm thinking it should be hollowed in 2 halves as it represents a lightweight ball.

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Local woods only

1 quick photo of something I've been playing with the last couple of nights. I don't want to give too many details yet, I am willing to say that these are for our club's August President's Challenge - Local woods only.

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Possibilities

 This interesting chunk of wood was sourced off of Craigslist last night.  I saw and ad for a shelf full of burls.  Unfortunately I was too late for that ad but they seller said he had a few more I might be interested in.  A Buckeye burl (below) and a large "Basketball sized" Oak burl.

 I was interested in the Buckeye, not as interested in the Oak burl but I took enough cash with me for both.  The Oak burl was closer to 20" diameter but it looked like it had been sitting exposed to the weather for at least a decade and was rotten right through the center.  On the far end of his woodpile he had this piece.  He wasn't sure what wood it is but I knew I had to have it.  The price he quoted was quite a bit less than what I was willing to pay so it was loaded up.  He also had an older 110v Gast vacuum pump that I picked up.  I'm not certain what I'm going to do with it but I couldn't pass it up either.  It's very similar to my 220v pump but this has the advantage of being able to be used anywhere with standard power, a huge advantage for demos and travel.

 This is the Buckeye piece.  It's about 14-15" diameter and 9-10" deep with quite a bit of grey color.  Surprisingly light for its size.

This will probably end up being a natural edge nested set but that will have to wait, I'm headed out of town for vacation soon.

Spheres

Some spheres from Thursday and Friday night.  The smallest one at the top was made when I made the kendama and is made out of Cedar.  The 2 below that on the left hand side are both Eucalyptus.  The lightest colored one is Olive, the dark one in the bottom middle is Desert Ironwood.  The large one on the right is Mesquite.  The bowl is one I did a couple of years ago, I think it's Cottonwood.

Catch up II

Our club is submitting 1 piece to this summer's "Turning 25 - A Celebration" exhibit in Minneapolis-St. Paul.  This was one of my entries to our club's selection competition.  I'm happy to report that it was the selection and will be included in the exhibit and in the exhibition catalog.  It's titled "Relic I" and is made from a Desert Ironwood root salvaged from a lot being cleared for a new retail development.

After ruining the first hollow form I decided to give it another shot, slowing down just a bit so I don't ruin it.  I started off at exactly 4:05 PM

The finished piece (including a very quick sanding to 320) at 4:20 PM.

It was also cut in half to check the wall thickness.  It's  the one on the right and is quite a bit thicker in the bottom than I'd like and the opening is larger than I'd like but overall it's not bad.  The one on the left was my 10 minute attempt from earlier.

 Last night was a prototype for a new multi axis box.

 The inside is turned prior to the outside.  The outside is done on 2 parallel axis.  One Axis is turned as a large bead, the other is turned as a large cove.  The top and bottom are then turned using a jam chuck.

 There was a significant defect in the wood, making it perfect for a prototype.

Open view, showing the pinched oval cross section.

Catch up

 A bit of catch up and picture dump tonight.  This is going to be a long entry with limited notes.

This blank is Chinese Elm from my neighbor's tree.  It died last fall and had to come down last week.  This is the top part of the trunk, it split into 4 branches at this point.

 Alternate view.

I only took it as far as shaping the outside.  It's been coated with Anchorseal and set aside for the time being.

Alternate view.  The shape will be refined as work progresses.

Ahead of my Tucson demo I decided to do a little practice turning.

A simple spindle turned on 2 parallel axis.  This gives a pinched oval shape to the piece.

Next was another parallel 2 axis piece.  All 3 sections have a circular cross section, only the center section is offset.

Saturday was my demo for the Southern Arizona Woodturners Association in Tucson.  This was my first visit to this club and I did my multi axis demo.  Over the course of 2 1/2 hours I did 6 multi axis projects.  2 parallel axis spindles to warm up, a Mark St. Leger style multi axis final jig, a 3 sided lidded box with a twist, and finally a pair of multi axis pendants.

While there we stopped into the local Woodcraft, my only purchase was a Woodriver brand Stebcenter.  I've been playing with it for the last couple of day and I really like it so far and at $20 it's a bargain.

Sunday morning started with a small Olive hollow form. Approx. 3 1/4" X 2 1/2".

Top view.

Profile view.

That got me thinking, how fast could I turn a similar piece, start to finish.  I started at exactly  2:00

 At 2:10 I heard a somewhat familiar noise and stopped the lathe to find that I had cut through the sidewall near the bottom as I was shaping the outside.  I needed about 2 more minutes to finish shaping the outside and give it a quick sanding.

 Finished off the bottom but not yet sanded, no point sanding it at this time.

I wanted to check how I did inside, a little rough but pretty consistent down to the point where the inside gets bigger than the outside.  I could have gone a little deeper in the middle but a little more meat in the bottom isn't a bad thing as it helps keep it upright.

More tomorrow.