(no subject)
Got some quality time in on the lathe this weekend, which I had really been missing. Also, last weekend the weather was warm enough to support playing lathe (the lathe outbuilding is unheated) so that helped a lot. This weekend Saturday was ok but Sunday was miserably cold. I played lathe anyway because all the pieces are handy (splitter, chainsaw, bandsaw) for generating blanks that are a reasonable size.
Playing lathe is a work in progress. It helps to start with "Very First Bowls" so that you can appreciate the fact that I don't suck that much anymore. So, without further ado, here are bowls #1 and #2.
In case you could not tell, bowl #2 is on the right, bowl #1 is on the left. These are green ash.
And then I did some more bowl-shaped things, some of which sucked less. Here's a sampling of the "sucking less" products:
From left, front row is cherry bowl, cherry bowl, red oak bowl. Back row is maple goblet, spalted maple pocket bowl, black walnut bowl mk 2(on top), ash box, black walnut bowl mk 1.
These were things that were "better" and not quite so beginner as bowl #1 and bowl #2. A lot of other stuff also got made (but not photographed) along the way. These, such as they are, represent the successes.
The first thing I made that I was mostly happy with was the black locust bowl that shines golden like the sun. It looks like this:
I am keeping it. It makes me happy. Plus also, black locust is fluorescent under black light. (No lie.) It's about 6" in diameter and about 3" tall, because scale is difficult in pictures. It's not *for* anything, just for having.
The second thing I made that I kinda like is another black locust bowl. This one is 5" diameter and about 3 1/2" tall. I was going for kind of a clean, modern line. Me likey.
And since it is holiday season and I need presents for people, I've started work on that. Now, my dear friend loves red oak, it's her very favoritest wood in the whole world. Yeah, I know. How many of you even have friends with favorite woods? But here in rednecklandia, we have favorite woods and Lala's favorite wood is red oak, which she thinks smells nice and splits compliantly and is the prettiest and makes excellent heat and so forth and so on. For what it's worth, I pretty much agree with Lala regarding the virtues of red oak. It is not, however, as pretty turned as black fucking locust, and who the hell would have ever guessed that? Not me, cowboy. But xmas is not about what I think looks the prettiest on the lathe, it's about making people happy. To that end, we have Bowl, in red oak:
It's a y-trunk crotch so the grain is interesting.
I should have made it maybe half an inch deeper, but I am a candy-ass and I chickened out. I need a better way to measure bowl depth anyway. Here's hoping it does not crack as it dries as a result of the bottom being too thick.
The bowl measures 7 1/2" in diameter by 4" in height.
And there you go, illustrated progress in playing lathe. Yay! Wasn't that fun?
Playing lathe is a work in progress. It helps to start with "Very First Bowls" so that you can appreciate the fact that I don't suck that much anymore. So, without further ado, here are bowls #1 and #2.
In case you could not tell, bowl #2 is on the right, bowl #1 is on the left. These are green ash.
And then I did some more bowl-shaped things, some of which sucked less. Here's a sampling of the "sucking less" products:
From left, front row is cherry bowl, cherry bowl, red oak bowl. Back row is maple goblet, spalted maple pocket bowl, black walnut bowl mk 2(on top), ash box, black walnut bowl mk 1.
These were things that were "better" and not quite so beginner as bowl #1 and bowl #2. A lot of other stuff also got made (but not photographed) along the way. These, such as they are, represent the successes.
The first thing I made that I was mostly happy with was the black locust bowl that shines golden like the sun. It looks like this:
I am keeping it. It makes me happy. Plus also, black locust is fluorescent under black light. (No lie.) It's about 6" in diameter and about 3" tall, because scale is difficult in pictures. It's not *for* anything, just for having.
The second thing I made that I kinda like is another black locust bowl. This one is 5" diameter and about 3 1/2" tall. I was going for kind of a clean, modern line. Me likey.
And since it is holiday season and I need presents for people, I've started work on that. Now, my dear friend loves red oak, it's her very favoritest wood in the whole world. Yeah, I know. How many of you even have friends with favorite woods? But here in rednecklandia, we have favorite woods and Lala's favorite wood is red oak, which she thinks smells nice and splits compliantly and is the prettiest and makes excellent heat and so forth and so on. For what it's worth, I pretty much agree with Lala regarding the virtues of red oak. It is not, however, as pretty turned as black fucking locust, and who the hell would have ever guessed that? Not me, cowboy. But xmas is not about what I think looks the prettiest on the lathe, it's about making people happy. To that end, we have Bowl, in red oak:
It's a y-trunk crotch so the grain is interesting.
I should have made it maybe half an inch deeper, but I am a candy-ass and I chickened out. I need a better way to measure bowl depth anyway. Here's hoping it does not crack as it dries as a result of the bottom being too thick.
The bowl measures 7 1/2" in diameter by 4" in height.
And there you go, illustrated progress in playing lathe. Yay! Wasn't that fun?