Spring Pole Lathe turned projects

hooray for you..I made my first lathe about 30 yrs ago & turned chair parts on it..1 leg-power is grand

-- We call the destruction of replaceable human made items vandalism, while the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources is called development.

! :)

-- Thomas - There is no such thing as a problem, there only are solutions.

That’s a beautiful rattle! (so are the other items). I especially like your spring pole lathe. It’s amazing how much you can do in a limited space. Next time you go to the lumberyard that supplies walnut to Rolls-Royce, how about taking some pictures of the slabs and lumber for a blog post? I’d like to see what they have to compare it to the American black walnut I saw. Thanks in advance.

-- Hal, Tennessee http://www.first285.com

Thank you everyone.
Hal, I am not planning to go to that lumberyard any time soon as I will most likely move and cannot afford to buy any more wood right now.
The lumberyard however is the following :
http://www.scierie-forest.com/

American walnut and European walnut are indeed very different. I love both but for different reasons.
American walnut is indeed very dark while European walnut is much lighter in tone.
In France, the best quality walnut is considered to come from the Isere region, where this lumberyard is located.

I hope this helps,

-- Fabrice - "On est bien bête mais on sent bien quand on se fait mal" - my grandfather

Thank you for the link. The photos on the site showed a great deal of detail. I’d love to visit a French sawmill one day. I’ve watched every stage of the Tour De France this year and on one stage they passed a forest and long straight logs were stacked next to the road waiting to be transported to the mill… I see a lot of exotic lumber here on Lumberjocks and while it’s beautiful, I’m just glad I live in the Appalachian Mountains where black walnut, wild cherry and maple grow everywhere. Here’s a link to photographs of some of the trees on my property.

http://lumberjocks.com/HalDougherty/blog/20292

If they supply walnut to Rolls-Royce I bet I couldn’t afford to buy anything from them. I looked over the website and searched Google maps for their address. You can get a street view of the sawmill. The Google mapping car has passed by at some time. They also drove past my house in East Tennessee. The French countryside looks a lot like it does here in East Tennessee.

-- Hal, Tennessee http://www.first285.com

Now that is some amazing turning. Very impressive indeed. Bravo!

-- Superdav "No matter where you go - there you are." http://chiselandforge.com

Michelletwo, Thomas, Dave, thank you.

Hal, I have already bought some walnut from this lumberyard. They have actually some of the most affordable walnut in the region, as they handle so much of it. Of course, Rolls-Royce quality is probably a lot more expensive than the regular one but I was still very happy with the one I bought at the time. If I had some room to store more wood, I would probably buy some from there.
I used the wood I bought at their place in these 2 projects :
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/48248 and http://lumberjocks.com/projects/48247
Once, a friend of mine gave me some black American walnut and I used it in this project :
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/48246
I really loved to work with American walnut, I wish I had more to work with.

-- Fabrice - "On est bien bête mais on sent bien quand on se fait mal" - my grandfather

Come to East Tennessee and I’ll give you some beautiful American black walnut. I don’t steam it, so the colors are very bright after some sanding and after rubbing in a couple of coats of tung oil. Only a couple of big problems… The freight would be expensive and there is a tree disease (1000 cankers) that is causing the death of walnut trees. Diseased trees have been found less than 100 miles from where I live so transport of raw wood is prohibited. Finished lumber that’s been kiln dried and finished products are not affected by the transport ban. At this time there isn’t a cost effective treatment for 1000 cankers disease. I sure hope one is found before black walnut lumber becomes as scarce as American chestnut.

-- Hal, Tennessee http://www.first285.com

Wooooo
Cool stuff.
Love those turning tools.
Beautiful mallet.
What a glow on that handle.
Best thoughts,
Mads

-- Mad F, the fanatical rhykenologist and vintage architect. Democraticwoodworking.

I really like the mallet.. Good job on the turn also. I don’t know what a spring lathe is exactly, but I’m guessing it helped you to make those “slanted” turns.. I’m a little confused how that was accomplished. Thanks for sharing.

-- Woodworking for the hobbyist woodworker. http://sawdustking.com

Hal, I’d love to visit more of the USA some day. So far the only places I have been are Arkansas, New Hampshire and Massachusetts (Boston).

Mads, you were an inspiration along with Andy in restoring old tools.

SawDustKing, a spring pole lathe is a foot operated lathe (no motor) which moves in a reciprocating fashion : you cut when the wood is turning in one direction then you lift the tool and let the spring rewind in the other direction. You cannot leave the tool in contact with the wood all the time. Not sure what you refer to as “slanted” turns though… maybe the captive rings on the rattle?

-- Fabrice - "On est bien bête mais on sent bien quand on se fait mal" - my grandfather

Very nice, the Walnut is spectacular, the rattle is amazing, as well as the other projects.

I really like the tools, I didnt know they made tools made for spring pole lathes. I just started turning and I’ve heard it said that if you have the skill no sanding is required, I hope to get there some day. So far the only thing I have turned are cylinders for making wooden screws.

-- Mauricio - Woodstock, GA - "Confusion is the Womb of Learning, with utter conviction being it's Tomb" Prof. T.O. Nitsch

Hi Mauricio.
If you are lucky, you can find old turning tools on ebay for quite cheap. If you buy old enough tools you will be sure they will be high carbon steel and not HSS, which is better for pole lathe turning. I was too eager to try turning that I bought my tools new (Ray Iles tools) but if I had been more patient I could have bought some much cheaper on ebay.

With sharp tools it is actually very easy to get a surface that require virtually no sanding. The best results are obtained with a skew chisel but I still have a lot of grabbing issues when using it (the spindle gouge is much easier to control I have found).

-- Fabrice - "On est bien bête mais on sent bien quand on se fait mal" - my grandfather

I’ll keep a look out, my bench will have a wagon vise, I have to see if I can make the lathe thing work through the wagon vise hole. I still have to finish my bench though so its still dreams at this point.

-- Mauricio - Woodstock, GA - "Confusion is the Womb of Learning, with utter conviction being it's Tomb" Prof. T.O. Nitsch

Fantastic! Great to see the work from a vice-lathe, awesome.

-- If you can dream it, I can do it!