Hello again,
I will start by mentioning that our AGM which was to be held on Saturday was deferred until next month due to the fact that our treasurer Francis Corr was unable to attend.
Our guest demonstrator this month was Pat Walsh, who we all know is a very experienced turner and he gave us a very good demo turning one of his unique textured and decorated bowls. These bowls, as can be seen by the photos, are very eye-catching and Pat gave us a master class as he went through the different stages of turning one of these.
First mounting a chestnut blank of about 220mm in diameter on a screw mount he started by roughing out, with a bowl gouge, the outside of the blank until he achieved the shape he desired. To smooth the surface before texturing he used his preferred tool, a scraper made from a bevelled edged chisel which he had ground to suit, he also used a 3mm, wide blade parting tool which he also ground as a scraper, these he said gave him the finish he wanted. Using a texturing wheel and with the lathe running at a very low speed Pat ran the tool at different angles until he was happy with the result. He had already cut a spigot at the bottom so he now reversed the work into the chuck and started to hollow out the bowl. These bowls are quite thick walled (at least 15 mm I would think) and as the texturing goes down about 40mm inside, Pat started to undercut at this point giving a clearly defined rim inside. He now took a mini grinder fitted with an Arbortech carving wheel and began to make short cuts at different angles about 10mm deep around the outside of the bowl in what I would call a random pattern, these cuts he continued on the top edge and down into the inside rim. At this stage I would refer you to the photos I have included, it will hopefully make it clearer as to what I am trying to describe
Now to the finishing stage, the cuts Pat had made around the bowl had lifted a lot of fibres making the surface hairy so he now took a blowtorch and first clearing away all shavings and dust from around the lathe he scorched the surface, this he said was the quickest way to achieve this end, he also used a sanding disk in a drill to help tidy it up. (A point of safety, any burning or scorching of wood in the workshop should be carried out long before you intend to leave, for obvious reasons.)
The work is now ready for colouring and here you can let your inner artist come out and go to town, Pat choose to finish his with a black acrylic base and when dry a silver gilt cream which is applied simply with the fingers, though wearing a glove might be a good idea. He then returned to the inside of the bowl and sanded below the rim to leave a natural finish inside. Again the choice of finish is up to you, Pat used an acrylic lacquer inside and out, polishing the inside with a burnishing cream and the result was beautiful. Thank you Pat for an excellent demonstration.
The result of the monthly competition was as follows, Jim Hynes 1st Anthony Murphy 2nd and John Blythman 3rd.
Our next meeting is the Christmas one and we hope to see a full house for this as Tom Gibson told me there will be lots of mince pies and other goodies and also a raffle, all contributions to this would be welcome.
Thank you all for attending and look forward to seeing you next month. Work safe.
Pat Gannon.