Many people have asked if I have a vision in what I can create with a piece of wood. My simple answer is yes; well sometimes. In general, turning something from a plank of wood purchased from a store whether it be Home Depot or Woodchuckers I will likely not skew from my initial design. Working with a log, I will have a concept of what I want to do but when you open up a piece of wood there may be a lot of variables to consider. Is it punky?, what’s the grain like?, color?, does it have knots?, are there any stones? is it safe to work with. In this blog I will take you on a photo journey in my workshop starting with a small log. The wood is Juniper, 4″ in diameter, 15″ in length. My project is to create a vase. Based on the size of the wood I decided to make two vases therefore cutting the log having 10 ” and 5″ pieces.
The first order of business it to remove the bark. I want to have a contrast of sap wood and heart wood on my finished piece. I must turn the bark and some of the sap wood away and create the design that will be pleasing to me.
It’s starting to take shape and I like the contrast of the white sap wood and red heart wood. With finish on, this will make a very nice vase. I hollow out the center and sand to 600 grit. I will apply a mixture of Tung oil and shellac finishing it on the lathe at about 2500 rpm’s. This creates a French polish. Using a buffing system buff at 1700 rpm, cut the vase off the waste wood, sand the bottom, finish and there you have a finished project.
I do the same process with the smaller piece of wood.
When done I have two vases that will be on display at the Fenelon Station Gallery. Hope to see you there.
Morris will next be in the gallery on June 22nd.
