Saturday, January 28, 2017

Pointy Pendulums

A couple of weeks ago I made another batch of hardwood pendulums on the lathe. This time, I used the scroll chuck, so I was able to get them to end in a nice sharp point (which is something I can't really do with a drive spur and live center).


I also started using some more exotic wood species than I had in the past. Now I am using walnut, jatoba, sapele, soft maple, and black ebony. Oh, and I finally got them down to a more reasonable size.
Posted by Rev. Marx at 1:44 AM
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4 comments:

  1. herbApril 7, 2017 at 6:58 PM

    Nice!
    Yeah, using a scroll chuck opens up a lot more options and makes turning small stuff like that a lot easier and less time consuming.
    What tool are you using? Skew, spindle gouge?
    Some other woods that deal well with intricate details or very thin parts are: Pink ivory, Purpleheart, apple, pear, plum, beech (spalted it's a really beautiful wood), boxwood, yew, olivewood, lilac, Laburnum, dogwood, Black Elder, some sorts of cherry, bocote, Cocobolo, Grenadillo, Snakewood, Kingwood and Ziricote to name some.

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  2. Rev. MarxApril 7, 2017 at 7:46 PM

    I use skews and two or three different sized spindle gouges mainly. Almost never use scrapers, except for carbide tools occasionally. Keeping my tools sharp is one of my main problems.
    I am just getting to the point where I am moving away from cheap woods and buying decent hardwoods. Soft maple turns very nicely.

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  3. herbApril 8, 2017 at 7:57 AM

    Yeah, maple is great to turn. Also easy to stain. I use fountain pen ink a lot for maple. Works great and you can just finish it with shine juice as usual.
    Sharpening: my nemesis, too...

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  4. herbApril 8, 2017 at 7:59 AM

    I also mainly use different sized skews (oval ones) and spindle gouges. The skews are refreshingly easy to sharpen, just a nice flat bevel to take care of ;-)

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