Creative Woodturning
Woodturning UK, "Wet Turning With A difference" - Stuart Mortimer Video -
July 2003
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WET TURNING WITH A DIFFERENCE
This excellent video from the
workshop of Britain's Stuart Mortimer starts in what appears to be a
very nice, sleepy little village with Stuart at his log pile
selecting a good sized piece of Sycamore for the two featured
projects. After cutting the log in two, we see Stuart sealing both
pieces with End Seal and he explains that although he will turn both
pieces that day the logs quickly start losing moisture and the
process of drying and splitting starts almost instantly.
BASIC CUTS, ONE, TWO
AND THREE
The
turning starts with Stuart showing what he describes as cuts
numbered one, two and three with both the spindle gouge and skew
chisel. The number one is a simple "V" forming cut, the number
2 is a rolling, bead forming cut and the third is a concave cut, not
the easiest with a skew. The cuts lesson is ended with a quick
two minute exercise in making an egg using only number one and two
cuts, so simple it's made to look to easy. |
PROJECTS ONE AND TWO
The first
project is what will eventually become an open weave globe, a piece
that is regarded as Stuart's trade mark. The wet Sycamore log is
mounted on one of Stuart's favourite lathes, the Apollo, this is one
of the quietest lathes I have ever heard running. We see Stuart
doing the initial roughing and external shaping with a bowl gouge
and then the internal hollowing with spindle gouges and scrapers.
The wall thickness is controlled with a
light that is mounted on the lathe and placed inside the vessel as
it rotates, giving the spinning piece a very colourful and bright
glow. The final wall thicknessing is done on the outside of the piece, where
very fine cuts are
taken to even out the overall colour from the light shining through
the walls of the still translucent piece, this achieves Stuart's final goal, a
1/16" wall thickness.
The second project is an Ogee shaped vase with reverse Ogee foot.
This piece is also treated to the open weave finish. Although the
timber used in both projects starts out wet, due to the very thin
wall section Stuart is able to friction dry both on the lathe by
sanding the inside and outside at the same time. The Sycamore can be
seen steaming and turning white as it dries.
ACHIEVING THE OPEN
WEAVE EFFECT
The final
section of the video shows Stuart explaining how he achieves the
open weave effect that looks so good on a lot of his pieces.
For this he uses three main tools, for those of you with a nervous
disposition it might be advisable to turn the sound down at this
stage, the first tool is a dental drill that runs at 440,000 rpm (I
feel the pain every time I watch it) the second a die grinder that
uses the same compressed air driver as the dental drill and the
third a humble but very useful Dremel grinder.
A MASTER CRAFTSMAN AT WORK
This video
is worth buying just to watch a master craftsman at work and to see
the gallery that contains some of Stuart's work as a closing
sequence. Visit the
Stuart Mortimer Showcase on
Creative Woodturning for more of Stuart's work. It is a must for
anyone aspiring to turn wet timber and will also give a lot of
inspiration to woodturners at any level. This is the first
turning video the LOML has sat through with me and enjoyed, this
mainly she says because of the lack of the inane music that usually
accompanies craft videos, in this case the music is replaced with a
good and informative commentary.
Review - Mike Swain
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