First Plate/Shallow Bowl , Box Elder

I have to agree, the color and grain is beautiful!!

Nice Work!!

Nice turnings they look great.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

That’s not a bad looking platter Scrappy. Not bad at all. I like it. Nice color and grain.

-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com

Great looking. I just bought a mini lathe to make a cane for my Mother-in-law and so I need to try a few other projects.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Thanks for the nice comments.

Karson, Carfull, once you get started you might not want to quit!

This has become my current addiction.

Scrappy

-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!

scrappy – I’m in the same boat, learning as I go, but I’ve been having some nice successes lately that are inspiring. It’s still amateur stuff, but it’s a good little leap up from where I’ve been. Some things finally clicked. I’ll share a few things that I stumbled into that are working for me lately to get smooth faces and curves pretty much just how I want them. First off, what tool, or which tools are you using? For me I’ve been using a 3/4” roughing gouge to get things to cylindrical, or roughly bowl/plate/cup shaped. Then I’ve been using this Robert Sorby Spindlemaster to do some skew-like smoothing and shaping. I’m glad I looked up the link for you, because I see now there are bigger ones. I hadn’t realized! I have the 1/2”, but they go up to 1”. I need at least the 3/4”, and the 1” would be fantastic for smoothing work. Basically, I point the tool in the direction I’m running around the bowl (outside), tilt the tool tip up (hand down) about 15° or so, and then rotate the tool to present the back edge against the bowl, and roll it into the cut a bit. I often don’t even roll, but just present the tool at the right angle, but rolling is a safe way to ease into it. Since the tool is small, I’ve actually had to hold the handle with my right hand, then press the tool against the rest with my other hand’s finger tips. I’m getting good at alternating directions and hands, which feels great, and weird. Using the back edge, I can control how much of the wood to remove, and smooth right around, changing the horizontal angle (yaw) as I go, and letting that determine in which tangent it wants to cut. I believe this is how skews work, though I’ve not tried one yet. For inside the bowl, plate, etc, I use a 1/2” spindle gouge, which could be bigger for larger stuff, whenever I pick one up. I use the same technique, angles, etc, and ride on the bevel itself. Just light yaw changes in the tool allow me to change which angle it wants to ride in, and have made for incredibly smooth curves from the center of plates and bowls out to the edges. I had one that I actually determined looked worse after sanding, because I had such a clean, smooth face with a perfect curve. I ruined that one anyway later, but it was a good moment :)

You know, I should probably just make a video of this at some point. I’m sure it’s common, maybe even the proper method, but after watching countless videos online these past months, I really haven’t heard anyone talk about riding on the bevel. Maybe I’ve not been paying attention.

-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator

Sometimes Iget those lines too but take your grinder with 24or36 grit and get them of(leave the plate a bit on the thick side those grits will eat wood fast,once they are gone just up your grits to 400 and done my 2cents

-- peruturner,lima peru