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This isn't an additional post but I can't make a mistake disappear! Yesterday's reply didn't show up at first so I posted it again.

Nice work. I notice in the background of one of your pictures the set of balls. I've recently turned a set of replacement balls from rescued Oak table legs. I'm not sure what to colour them with. If I use paint I fear it will chip off during the first game. I don't really want to buy loads of...

Hi Paul, I watched one of your videos of making a goblet, you suggested making a pair with left and right twisted stems, which was in fact set what me off on this project. Robo3 posted a link to Stuart's videos, which I watched this morning and realised that as I am turning stems fatter than...

I hadn't realised that the columns were wood until your picture. Another fascinating thing about carvings at St Paul's are the carved pigeons on the frieze around the outside (I know its stone) all of them are different. You can see the style of the individual carvers. One day I was in the city...

Certainly not teaching to suck eggs. I'm completely new to this. I was of the opinion that if I set my rasp to the right angle by eye just turning the spindle would pull the tool along. Ive been fascinated by barley twists since I was a little boy hiding under my great aunts gate leg table. Its...

An even more ignorant reply! I suspect that as we are repeatedly told, we are (or were) the 6th largest economy in the world. I presume that means we also consume a lot and therefore our impact or reduction of it will be significant. Thinking that our individual contributions can't make a...

There are more ways to die than by drowning. Bangladesh is loosing large tracks to the rising sea-level, displacing thousands onto already crowded hinterland (many to East London). In Europe, parts of East Anglia, Kent and The Netherlands are at or below sea level. These are some of the most...

Thanks for all the suggestions. A friend has one of those jigs and he cut all his staircase spindles with it, though the bottoms of the flutes are square. I suppose you can get a less square cutter to give a more natural section to the twist. As we can now make social calls I'll pay him a visit...

I have been trying to make some small candle sticks with a barley twist stem. I make them from bits of logs of Bay wood. At the moment I cut the twist with a rasp and then smooth the surface with glass paper. It takes a lot of effort with the rasp and I wonder if any one has a more efficient...

My chemistry is very limited but I'm sure in school we made bleach by the electrolysis of salt water or has the 60 year interval distorted my memory? On a rather more important point The doubters about the climate emergency should watch yesterday's unreported world Unreported World: Unreported...

This boomer is of the belief that it is a climate emergency, the cosy phrases global warming and climate change went out a long time ago. The Stern report was published in 2006. Stern Review - Wikipedia and we are still talking as though change was a choice. As a world, we have slowly got into...

You may indeed be right Rorschach but it is the profit being made from speculating on a limited amount of land that pushes prices up. If more homes were built by the public sector and let out at affordable rents, prices across the board would come down. Developers/Speculators don't want this but...

You mention Germany. Our daughter lives in Munich and her previous flat, a new build and their new home a 1970s house, both are heated by a ground source heat pump, their building standards require a high standard of insulation, even the 1970s, and in their really cold winters they are able to...

Plastic is amazing stuff and appropriate for all sorts of environmentally sustainable things. What we have a problem with is single use plastic and mountains of un-recycled waste. Lets have more posts like Colin's about successful ways to leave our children and grandchildren a world fit to live...

I hope that this contribution will be contradicted by someone with more than anecdotal evidence but! When I was a student in 1970 Friends of the Earth was becoming a big thing in my college, a chap called John Symore publish books on self sufficiency, Rachel Carson had published Silent...

While I appreciate that my teachers' pension is a wonderful thing, may I challenge Trainee's quote? The teachers pension is not subsidised by the government. Teachers pay quite a large chunk of their income into supper-an and employers pay a massive amount, I when I was still at school our...

Really elegant forms. Did you use a template to get the sphere accurate? Looking at the top you have a plug did you turn it on a mandrel? A while ago I turned a set of Oak croquet balls and found them the most challenging piece of free hand turning I've done. Getting them spherical and to a...

A lovely piece of work but I have a question. You must have a table saw and planer thicknesser or similar to prepare such a beautiful piece. I'm still using most of the hand tools I had to get for college more than 50 years ago. (Though I've added a few powered bits and pieces)

I'm afraid that like it or not a lot of people in this country are a bit racist and misogynistic ( I probably am but don't like it and endevour not express it). Unfortunately a few are unwilling to recognise this in themselves or appriciate that their "plain speaking or only joking" is...

What a wonderful thread. When I first taught I used to presume that children knew the difference between how long something was how wide and how thick. It soon dawned on me that it wasn't the case, with hilarious consequences. When we discussed prep lists I had to include, in my scheme of work...