Club Night Report

Wednesday 13th March 2019

Club Night Photos for 13th March 2019 - Guest Demonstrator - Les Thorne

The demonstrator for the March meeting was a very welcome return of Les Thorne (see website: www.noturningback.co.uk) - whose subject for the evening was: A Lidded Bowl - using side grain (as opposed to end grain) timber. The bowl was presented 'upside down' complete with a finial/ knob on a platter - similar to a restaurant food serving cloche/ domed cover. It was suggested that this item could be used for presentation purposes…

For the 'bowl' Les started with a seasoned oak blank approx. 105 mm square by 75 mm long, mounted on a screw chuck. This was shaped using both push and pull cuts. A spigot for dovetail jaws was turned and a 10 mm diameter hole was drilled in the end face. Mounted on the spigot, a mini-bowl was turned to a 6 mm wall thickness.
The bowl was re-mounted on a scrap-wood spigot with tailstock support - and the spigot was removed. The outside of the bowl was decorated with a series of grooves cut with a thin parting tool. A brass brush in a power drill was used to brush out any grain tear-out. The bowl was then sprayed with ebonising lacquer - then coated with liming wax and brushed off under power - and polished with a 'rubber' (small folded cloth)
.
The base/ platter for the bowl was an ash blank approx. 125 mm diameter by 30 mm thick mounted with hot-melt glue on a scrap-wood base. The blank was turned round and thinned to size - a small bead was used to disguise an undercut mounting recess - and the remainder of the underside was turned.
The base was separated from the scrap-wood holder and re-mounted on the recess. The glue remains were cleaned up and the spigot for locating the bowl (top) was created and cut to size. The remainder of the top face was finish turned.

A 'drawer knob' style button was turned to suit the 10 mm hole and a covering button for the inside of the bowl was produced. As an alternative an 'onion dome' finial was turned for comparison.

Les produced an excellent demonstration of tooling use, techniques, good practices and skills to provide a humorous, stimulating and thoroughly entertaining evening. Thank you Les!

The display table was well supported with a number of interesting items.

David Branscombe showed a very thinly turned oak burr plate and a rippled ash, decorated and coloured bowl. Arthur Kingdon presented a lidded box (with feet) made of African blackwood and alternative ivory - made on his ornamental lathe and rose engine. A clever swivel lidded box - with magnetic fixings - made of magnolia wood, was shown by Sean Snook. Richard Balmforth displayed a walnut bowl with clear cast-resin 'moat' encasing a selection of sea shells.