North Coast Woodturners ONE TREE PROJECT

King Heiple makes a bowl with a carved flute. Being from an oak tree, King wanted to embed an oak leaf in the finish of the bowl. He picked an oak leaf from the ground, boiled the leaf for about 5 minutes and pressed the leaf into the bottom of the bowl. He put a paper towel over the leaf and poured lead shot on in the bowl to press the leaf smooth. Any bubbles that remained he cut with a "surgical device" and pressed the leaf flat. The bowl was finished with "probably" 30 coats of Deft. In the area of the leaf, King poured some finish in the bowl and let it dry.

This little bowl was spindle turned, but cracked badly. King carved out the cracks and highlighted the edges with India ink. The little piece is completed with an inlaid butterfly.

Joe Smith turned this thin bowl, but it cracked in a day or two. He took a drum sander to the cracked areas and sanded the cracks out, then highlighted the edges of the holes with black marker. The bowl is finished with Behlen Danish Oil.

Brian Becker made this birdhouse by spindle turning and hollowing a portion of the oak log. A 1 1/4" hole was drilled for the entry hole, and a 3/8" dowel was turned for the perch. the top was turned from a round section of the log, textured with a Sorby texturing tool, then stained with Minwax dark cherry. The top and perch were glued on with epoxy and the birdhouse finished with three coats of Minwax spray spar varnish.

Dick Gray turned this maple hollow form very thin. He used a transfer to give him some idea of how to position the designs, then used a pen to transfer the designs he wanted. A woodburning tool was used to make permanent the design. Dick then pierced the designs with his dental tool. He used acrylics to add color. Exquisite.

Joe Smith turned this catalpa bowl, then took it to Dick's Sandblasting and had it blasted. This gave a very unique texture. The piece was finished with a couple coats of oil.

Joe says that sandblasting costs $5 for each piece, and recommends open grained woods such as ash, oak, catalpa, cedar, etc.

Mo Youssefi used the Sorby master hollower to make a beautiful finish on the inside of his lidded bowl. The top is a segmented 16 piece turning. The bowl is quartersawn maple.

Steve Rusnak made a segmented turning, using 18 segments per ring cut with an old Sears 1/8" kerf blade. He uses a Dubby cutoff fixture to get accurate cuts. The piece is glued up with Titebond and finished with Tung oil.

Jim Pugh Shows a curly, soft maple bowl. He says that the finish is as much fancy sanding as fancy turning. The soft maple wants to tear out across the grain. This wood had curl, spalting and ambrosia. "Mother Nature had more to do with it than I did."

We think, Jim, that Mother Nature had some excellent help.

Fred Clause took 3/4" beech and walnut and cut them together to make a bear and fish. He glued them up and turned this very nice platter. The piece was wet sanded and finished on the lathe.

Don Gasler made this maple hollow form with walnut top. The bowl is finished with Danish oil and the top finished with laquer. It is buffed. The work is turned in two pieces then glued together. It is hollowed to about 1/4" thick.

George Raeder showed us a piece from the gallery of learning. The bowl was held on a button chuck. He was turning off the bottom taking very thin cuts. The rim of the piece was already turned very thin. There was an almost insignificant vibration then the piece flew out of the chuck. This demonstrates just how careful you have to be when working near the center of a thin piece, even when taking very thin cuts.

Thanks to all who stood up to describe their work.
It was a very interesting and informative day.