Last year my brother and his wife decided to add onto their house, but to do so they had to cut down an apple tree in the yard. I told him I would like some of the wood if I could. I got all of the trunk and a crotch piece. I managed to rough out several pieces last December and finally got to finishing one of the pieces a month ago. I gave it to my sister-in-law for her birthday, so now they can have their apple tree inside their house!
The bowl is 7.5″ across and 4.5 ” tall. I finished this one with 4 coats of Minwax Antique Oil. Once it had cure I buffed it out.
I use a vibrating engraver to sign the bottoms of my pieces. This time I didn't fill it with sharpie and I think it looks more elegant.
First Prize winner!
Before giving the bowl to my sister-in-law, I entered it into the 2009 Puyallup Woodcarvers Show and won 1st place in the bowl category with it.
I was commissioned in May by a coworker to turn a set of mills for her to give to her dad for his birthday. Thankfully she decided to wait until he came out here to visit for Thanksgiving to give them to him. The summer became very busy with regular home maintenance work and enjoying the kids, so I was glad for the extra time.
I finished the mills last week with a final wet sand and buffing. These mills are made from laminated Padauk, Western Maple, and Dyed black veneer. They are finished with 10 coats of catalyzed lacquer. I let the first 5 coats cure for a week before wet sanding and applying the final 5 coats. I then waited a month to let it fully cure before final wet sanding and buffing.
This is the first time I used the lacquer on the Padauk mills, last time I used polyurethane on them and had problems with it curing. The lacquer worked much better.
Thanks Jen!! I hope he enjoys them.
I adjusted the layers so that the maple would end up on the top for the salt mill so it would be easy to distinguish between salt and pepper.
I am really glad I came up with the base idea. I like have something to catch all the falling grindings from the mill.
I just got my Ruth Niles Stoppers last week and just needed to see how they look. When I first got them I couldn’t believe how much smaller they were than the PSI ones I had. They really make the stopper itself the focus when in a bottle.
Here is the first one I made last night. It is cocabolo 2 1/2″ tall and about 1 1/4″ at the largest diameter.
I didn't have anything to hold the stopper for the picture, so I just grabbed a scrap chunk of applewood and drilled a hole in it.
While waiting to apply the finish to peppermills #112 & 113 I was asked by my boss to turn a couple of bowls as going away gifts for his boss. I chose to turn them from products he worked on developing during his career at Weyerhaeuser. The first bowl came from a TimberStrand iBrace that we tested in our lab. The bowl is 11″ wide x 3.5″ deep and 7/16″ wall thickness and finished with walnut oil/carnauba wax. The second bowl was made from laminated pieces of LVL (laminated veneer lumber). It is 9.5″ wide x 5.5″ deep and 3/8″ wall thickness. I finished this bowl with satin wipe-on polyurethane. I wanted the note and signature on the bottom to look more professional so I found a local laser engraver. I really love how the engraving turned out on the bottoms.
TimberStrand #114 - is finished with walnut oil and carnuba wax
Timberstrand #114 11" x 3.5" x 7/16" wall.
I had the bottoms laser engraved for the first time. I think it looks great!
LVL #115 9.5" x 5.5" x 3/8" wall.
LVL #115 9.5" x 5.5" x 3/8" wall.
I really like how professional the engraving looks.
Jen, a coworker of mine, shares my love of beautifully turned wood pieces. She even found out when there were some pieces in a gallery nearby and took me to see them. She has been very supportive of the pieces I have been turning over the past year. She really loved the peppermills I made for my mom and mother-in-law.
She loved them so much she commissioned me to turn a set for her dad’s birthday, but while I was gluing the blanks up for those I glued an additional blank just for her. I found some purpleheart for hers and glued it up with the same maple and dyed black veneer. This time, I saved some of the waste from the blank and turned a base for the mill to sit on while not in use. It will work great to collect pepper remnants that fall out.
I also experimented with using a precatalyzed lacquer that I had to mix and spray with spray equipment. The lacquer worked much better than the polyurethane I used in the past. The lacquer was hard within just 24 hrs to wet sand and buff to a beautifull high gloss.
Happy Birthday Jen!!
Purpleheart/Maple/Black veneer peppermill with base.
Mill Base
A closeup of how the base matches the mill.
I use the ceramic CrushGrind mechanism so they can be used for salt.
