For the clubs’ entertainment this evening we have Ian Ethell who is a member of Trent Valley Woodturners and has been turning for a number of years now but still works full-time.

Off-centre honey dipper

For his first project, Ian will be turning an off-centre honey dipper and stand, and for this he produced a handout diagram of how to mount the piece between centres. The piece of wood was 200mm long by 30 mm square with the position being marked at 6mm each side of the centre line on each end of the blank, so we now have three points marked on each end of the blank.

Tools used were:

• 1” oval skew with a 15-degree angle
• 3/8 bowl gouge with 40 degree bevel and no wing
• Parting tool

The speed of the lathe was set to 3200 rpm.
Ian used the skew using the toe to mark the first area to be cut, these are marked first by using a story stick with all measurements on. By cutting in, only 40% of the blade and bevel must be in contact.
The skew was used to produce the shape of C, and then the bowl gouge for the shape of A. You must start in the centre of the area to be shaped and as you move along the shape open the flute of the gouge up. When sanding, you must keep the strip of abrasive tight across the turned section. To make the shape crisper, you need to go back to stage C.

Stage B
This is to cut the area for the honey itself again we use the long side of the skew and then with a peeling cut produce the required shape cut with the point whilst rolling the skew, the parting tool was then used to produce the slots on the end of the shaped blank, these slots are then sanded to remove any roughness

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Shape G The thin spindle
Using a gouge again to remove some of the unwanted wood, work towards the headstock for this. Ian used the gouge laid over on it’s side to produce a type of skew cut, the shape of the spindle should have a slight taper to it.

Shape I
Sharp tools and clean cutting is essential for this, this is the first cut, using a bowl gouge cut the curve to the required depth.

Shape H
Same cut as for I

Shape F

Same cut again for this bevel

Shape D

The very end of the tail stock.  Take this down to about 5 to 6mm, at this point we still need the offset positions.

Shape E

We need to watch the amount of pressure being applied to the item now so that it does not flex.

Cut the handle back towards the headstock.  Take it down to a thickness that is still sound, as the other end still need to be finished.  At this point, go back to step D for removing this additional waste. The ends need to be finished off by using a carving knife for each end, then sand to the required finish.

Yoke now which is made out of Cherry

A flat piece of cherry is held between the square jaws of the chuck.  Then a slicing cut across the end with a spindle gouge.  Hollow out the centre from the end so that a hollowed out section is all the way through the wood.  The tool rest is now turned square on to the side of the wood and run down the side of the blank, then curve the cut into the blank to form a Y shape.

At this stage it pays to have a plain colour background which helps you see what you are cutting.  A bowl gouge was used for the side.  Produce a chamfer prior to parting the yoke off the wood.

Now for the base, again use the flat stripe of wood used for the yoke, this is used to mount the yoke into to form a bed for the honey dipper to be mounted on.

Bottle Stopper 45mm square

Produce an inverted cone, now a dome is formed on the end which is the widest part of the cone.  This is then textured on the end by using an elf texturing tool and also frame this texture with the point of the skew. At this stage apply sanding sealer to the end grain and then apply wax into the created pattern.

Now tip the blank within the chuck and re-tightened, this will produce the off-centre effect.  Slice off a section of the wood at the chuck end whilst using a skew, the blank can now be put back into the chuck so that it is running true again, at this stage remove any surplus wax that may be present.

Remove the waste at the chuck end so that a plastic bottle stopper will fit, this reduction being done by the use of a parting tool.  Remove the item from the chuck and affix the plastic end onto the turned item.

I have never needed one of these as the bottle is always empty.

Ian was able to answer questions throughout the evening.

Once again we must offer our thanks to all those who make the night run smooth, without them, we would not have a club.

Report by Barrie Fisher & edited by Steve Hackett

This year’s all-day professional demonstration event for the Black Country Wood Turner’s is with the very talented Jason Breach.

Jason will be demonstrating the following:-
Simple box – Pagoda box – Decorated box using the Axminster Eccentric Spiralling Chuck and finally a Decorative Owl head.

Jason has developed his reputation for woodturning over several years and has been teaching the subject for over 25 years now, and he lives near and works for Axminster Tools.

Links to reports on Jason’s projects for the day.

• Project 1 – Simple Box
• Project 2 – Pagoda Box
• Project 3 – Decorated Box using an Axminster Woodturning Eccentric Spiralling Chuck
• Project 4 – Owl’s head

Jason had a display of his work, some of which he demonstrated how to turn during the day. 

Jason had several special tools made to his design, for sale during the event.

Henry Taylor Jason Breach Box Refinement Tools

During the day we had a display of member’s work and a member’s tool sale. The cost of the event of £15.00 for the complete day, in this reporter’s opinion, was well worth the value and the members who did not attend missed out on a very enjoyable day. We would like to thank all club members who brought in items for the display table.

The club thanked Jason for his input on the projects and tips as he worked through them, and also for answering all the questions asked throughout the day. Jason demonstrations went down well with all who were there, with a lot of new ideas and tips to use. It was well worth the cost of the day.

We would like to thank Ian’s wife Kim for the preparation and presentation of the food at midday.
Thanks also go to all who helped set up the event and in taking everything back down, also Ian and Kim for helping set some of the work up on Friday night.

I would like to say it was nice to get our rooms back again without the animals and the jumble junk. So we must also thank the new administrator that we have for making sure we had a clean room and kitchen area with all rubbish removed and also for having a good supply of chairs

Report by Barrie Fisher & edited by Steve Hackett

The idea of the day was to get as many club members involved in the process of turning two sets of mini Skittles for 2 games that will be raffled off at events that the club has coming up later this year, with all of the proceeds going towards the Mary Stevens hospice charity.

In total, there were 28 mini Skittles to make for the two games.

We had all three of the club lathes out for the turners to use, in addition to having various sharpening systems available. Some of our more novice turners took their turn on the lathes, with experienced members helping them to develop their skills.

Whilst the turning was taking place Ian Brown took the opportunity to carry out an electrical PAT testing process on all of the electrical equipment that we use regularly, thankfully all items were passed as being safe.
During the day there was a tools sale along with other items, this went down well with a good amount being sold off.
There was plenty of tea and coffee on tap during the day, with biscuits, cake and pork pies available for everyone.
It was a great day for the social side of the club, with lots of chats between members.

The committee would like to thank all of the members who took part in the event and are pleased to say that the turning project was a great success with the many different members taking part and producing the Skittles.

We would especially like to thank Robert Hackett for adapting the game design and making the templates used during the day, and also Ian Brown for making the game-playing boxes and carrying out the PAT testing.

Thanks to all who set up and took down the equipment for the day.

An evening demonstration from club turners Barrie Fisher & Andy Dore.

First up was Barrie Fisher with a demonstration on decorating turnings with Jo Sonja iridescent paints & marbling with drawing inks.

Here is a description written by Barrie on techniques, he used during the the demo with added photos from the evening.

Development of decoration on either a bowl or vase will always depend on what
effects that you are trying to achieve and the shape of the object to be decorated.

One of the most basic is what is known as a string pull to form a decoration, this can
be either a solid colour or a mixture of several colours.
Either way I tend to use a piece of plastic tube which has been cut through length
ways and fixed on to a flat base. This will hold the paint even with a flow medium to
thin the paint down, and still keep it from running away.
Any new designs are always tried out on a flat piece of smoothed plywood first to see
if they would work. For myself I find that the Jo Sonja paints work the best, which is why I stick with them.

Different effects can be used throughout with differing types of paints, dyes and
inks, all being available. For the vase the paint would be applied first by fingers after putting on a pair of
plastic gloves, the vase is covered in this way to cover the complete surface area, Then, still at this stage still with the plastic gloves that have on, pat the point all round the vase to form a pattern that you are happy with.

• Cling film
• Bubble wrap
• Air blowing
• Feathers
• Wool or string
• Rolled cling film

Feather Effect string pull

• Step 1 – Lay a length of wool which has had Jo Sonja paint along the length as shown, then pull in the direction shown in picture above.
• Step 2 – Repeat the process along the opposite side, this then forms the main body of the feather.
• Step 3 – Lay the wool along the centre and pull back to give the effect of the quill.

Flower Effect

• Take a length of wool and load it with Jo Sonja paint.
• Lay the loaded wool line out in a pattern similar to that shown.
• Put a piece of tape at the base of the design to take up the overload of over-spill paint.
• Always pull through at the same point.
• You may need to wipe off any excess paint at the base.

Other effects

Other affects can be achieved using real Feathers or Artists fan paint brush.

Water Ink Dip (Alcohol ink)

This can produce some good effects on the blanks, but you have no control of the
pattern. This is an expensive process due to the waste of ink.
You will need a water bath for this, deep enough for your requirements, then drop
some ink dyes onto the water in a random manner and cause a gentle swirl.
With using water for this method the blank needs to be smoothed down twice, once
dry and the other wet, in this way you will get a smooth bowl.
Then carefully dip the bowl into the water and again carefully remove, at this point
you can see the effect that the inks have produced on the bowl. This then needs to
dry prior to final finishing.

For the second half of the evening, we have club member Andy Dore who demonstrated his process for inside out (involute) decorations.

Andy explained to the group how first came across inside out turning. He read an article in a wood turning magazine many years ago, and the process intrigued him so decided to have go to see what he could do. This developed into the we saw on the night.

Andy turns the decorations from white wood 34mm x 34mm from Wickes. He finds the wood clean to turn, it sands well & is not gummy like most pine woods. He cuts pieces 120mm long, and reduces them down to the 30mm x 30mm using the band saw and had a hand plain, making sure all sides are square. The centres are marked on the end using the corner cross method. The centres were punched accurately & then placed on the lathe between centres.

• Step 1 – Andy turned a cove into the piece (see pic above) to the sizes in his plan, then its sanded using a round block. The coves then has finishing oil applied with a cloth. Some times up to 3 coats.
• Step 2 – The block is the accurately cut into 4 pieces. Then turned around and glued back together with PVA, making sure that they don`t move. This leaves the coves now on the inside. They are held together with rubber bands until dry.
• Step 3 – The centres were the punched accurately again on the ends & then its placed on the lathe between centres. Andy then turned the block round. (see pic above).

• Step 4 – The round block is the placed in a chuck on the lathe, he the turns the decoration to shape looking to keep an even thickness around the windows, Finally it is sanded, and then is parted off to a point. As before it is finished with finishing oil applied with a cloth.

The club and committee would like thank Barrie & Andy for an excellent entertaining evening. It was enjoy by all present.

Report by Steve Hackett

We start this new year off with our first demonstrator of the year, Our very own club member Wolfgang Schulze-Zachau kindly agreed to start the year with what is becoming his annual demo club, Wolgang is fresh from appearing on Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker 2023, in which he came an excellent 2nd place. During 2023 Wolfgang also transitioned to a professional wood turner. The club wishes him well in his future endeavours.

For tonight’s demo, Wolfgang will be covering some helpful turning basic tool use.

• How do wood-turning tools cut the wood?
• Why do you get catches & how to avoid them?
• Achieving a good surface cut.

To help explain how turning tools cut, Wolfgang will be using extra large dummy tools he has made. There was a Skew, a Spindle Gouge & Bowl Gouge that were all made from wood.

The first tool Wolfgang demonstrated the use of was the spindle roughing gouge.

The skew chisel was next. Wolfgang explained about following the bevel and cutting in the correct area of the cutting edge. He also demonstrated how catches occur.

Next, Wolfgang covered Spindle gouge use.

And finally the bowl gouge.

Members asked relevant questions throughout the evening which is a good thing, with everyone taking in the relevant techniques employed by Wolfgang.

Once again the club would like to thank Wolfgang for the evening’s demonstration and explanations of what was taking place during the demo.

The club would like to give their thanks to all who helped out with both the setting up process and also the cleaning up at the end of the evening.

Report by Steve Hackett

For our entertainment of the evening, we have Stewart Furini, who has now retired from being an English teacher to become a full-time professional woodturner and demonstrator who likes to play about with embellishments and texture in addition to colouring wood.

Stewart started by going through some health and safety information for the normal mask that he uses when he sprays paint or lacquer. He also showed how to attach the siphon glass bottles under the airbrush; he also stated that he had a different siphon bottle for each colour that he uses; in this way, he cuts down on the cleaning requirements. He tends to use chestnut spirit dyes, but he also stated that you would require a set of gloves as it was difficult to remove the stain from your skin. With a siphon/suction feed airbrush, you can use it without cleaning if you always go from light to dark.

Stewart started by applying a stain directly to the blank using a homemade template. He just followed the edge of the template and kept moving it around the blank to develop a pattern. He demonstrated how to alter the degree of shade by moving the airbrush at different distances from the blank. The template needs to be kept dry for this and needs to be wiped every couple of uses so that the residue does not mark the blank.

Various templates can be obtained from both Amazon and eBay; these come as singles and also as bundles of different effects; they are relatively cheap.

Next, Stewart showed how to use masking tape on a blank after using a lighter colour first and going along the edge of the tape to form a shadow effect. The centre of the blank is now removed to give an overall effect. At this point, you could also frame the colouring of the effect with an outer ring effect, which will also add framing to the blank. The blanks that are used are then all sanded down to 240 grit to give the colour a base for the dye to adhere to.

A second blank was then mounted on the screw chuck of the lathe, and while all of this was going on, Stewart answered all questions that were asked The rim was also trued up, and an angle was produced in the rim. A spigot was also produced on the base of the blank for later use. The foot was established first by using a pull cut, and then an ogee shape was formed.
With the blank in reverse, a Proxon Long Neck Grinder/texturing tool was used (alternatives include the King Arthur Merlin2 Long Neck Grinder and the Abortech Mini Carver) to go across the face while the blank was turning. Without excessive pressure being applied at this point, the speed is around the 550 rpm mark. Stewart then used the airbrush and cloth with spirit stains to demonstrate colouring the texture.

Stewart then used the same textured blank to show a different technique; he used acrylic paint by Jo Sonia, but first, the blank was covered in black ebonizing colour and allowed to dry. Next, white and blue colours were applied, with the lathe turning slowly. Stewart used a wood frame cover to go around the blank, which was held in place with magnets. This was used to stop the overspray from the blank The lathe was then sped up to produce a flying-out effect with the paint.

Stewart tends to use the following types of cutters on his Proxon: Arbortech and Manpa, with the size being 51 mm x 8 mm.

The above Manpa cutter was used on the first part of the demonstration`s bowl blank while it was being turned by hand, and a series of indents were produced around the blank. This was then sanded down to remove the feather edges. Stewart then used his airbrush again to colour the texturing.

Stewart covered a lot of different techniques throughout the evening, which everyone seemed to enjoy. He stated that you can use the blanks to practice prior to turning a blank down, as the wood would get turned away anyhow, so you do not need a finished bowl to practice with the techniques.

Rob, as usual, took control and looked after the video and sound, while Steve looked after the raffle.
Thanks go to all who helped with the refreshments, setting up the room, and cleaning up at the end of the event.

Report by Barrie Fisher, edited by Steve Hackett