Hawthorne box with astonishing grain

[tekno.mage]

Hi,

I finished this tiny hawthorne box yesterday and just had to share the pics of the astonishing grain pattern and colours in the wood. Just a shame there was such a small piece of this wood showing these patterns.

The box is approx 45mm tall and 50mm across.

tekno.mage

 

[John. B]

Tek,
superb box! I've just done a couple of pens in Hawthorn, it's an extraordinary wood.
Pity it only comes in little bits

John. B

 

[johnny.t.]

That is nice timber TM and a nice little box too. It looks loads bigger in the pics than the dimensions you've given for it

JT

 

[tekno.mage]

That is nice timber TM and a nice little box too. It looks loads bigger in the pics than the dimensions you've given for it

JT

I wish it was :lol: Sadly I've only ever found really small bits of hawthorne with that kind of figuring in.

tekno.mage

 

[PowerTool]

Very nice (both the timber and the box)

Andrew

 

[Jenx]

Thats a beauty, TM ...
as you rightly say, gorgeous bit of wood.

Never had the fun of any, myself... will keep and eye out for some. !

Its lovely !
8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

 

[Lightweeder]

This is lovely Tekno. Mind if I ask what you use for hollowing your boxes?

 

[cornucopia]

lovely in every way
if you ever get offerd any blackthorn is also very nice.

 

[mikec]

Great box techno, beautiful wood

Mike C

 

[tekno.mage]

This is lovely Tekno. Mind if I ask what you use for hollowing your boxes?

I start hollowing using a 3/8" spindle gouge with a fingernail grind and a shortish (55 degrees) bevel then finish off with a scraper.

tekno.mage

 

[Lightweeder]

Thanks Tekno. I've just started to hollow out the centre, per Lord Raffan. Do you do that?

 

[tekno.mage]

Thanks Tekno. I've just started to hollow out the centre, per Lord Raffan. Do you do that?

What the back-hollowing thing? I don't think so. I start at the centre but swing the gouge up and to the left and I don't use the rim as a fulcrum like Lord Raffan describes. Seems to take out a decent shaving the way I do it and is easy enough to control - although there does seem to be a limit to how far you can hollow with a gouge which depends on depth & the size of the aperture.

He's right when he says you can hollow pretty fast with a scraper, though - I've had to do that with tall narrowish boxes once I've exceeded the depth I can go with a gouge and if the scraper is sharp it removes material quicker than you'd think (once you get the hang of it.)

One thing I found helped a lot with scraping a long way over the rest is using the box scaper platform you can get for the Sorby interchangable tool rest system. Don't know why but having the scraper on a wide flat rest seems to work better for me than on a round bar or shaped tool rest.

tekno.mage

 

[Lightweeder]

I hear what you're saying and, strangely, I have better success hollowing from the centre out, which is the opposite from what his Lordship advocates. No, what I've started doing is to drill out the centre down to the depth I want (serves a dual purpose of getting rid of the troublesome middle core and gives you your depth). Tried it with a forstner bit yesterday and almost set the thing on fire. I think it was walnut - certainly was hard, and ended up swapping to fairly substantial wood drill bit. It's made things simpler for me.

I'm interested in this extended tool-rest thingy though. I'll look into that, thanks.

PS. I'm a big fan of scrapers. Bought a curved one at Snainton the other day, and it's absolutely fffffffantastic. My straight one is too short now, but I'm using an old wood chisel for the flat bits.

 

[CHJ]

.....
I'm interested in this extended tool-rest thingy though. I'll look into that, thanks......

I have a tool post that will take Flat rests, I have several of differing lengths (and curves) that can be exchanged as required, real asset when reaching in deep with a scraper.

 

[tekno.mage]

Thanks for posting that photo, Chas - that flat rest looks very similar to the Sorby box scraper platform I have.

Regarding boring out with Forstner bits - I tried this when I started making boxes, thinking it had to be quicker & more accurate than doing it by hand. Wrong on both counts. It took ages (keep having to stop to let drill bit cool down, keep having to sharpen drill bit, wow is this b-o-r-i-n-g in the non-hole making sense) and it left an annoying little hole in the centre of the work and score marks all down the sides that need removing with a scraper anyhow.

Like Lightweeder, I'm now a fan of scrapers for use on end grain - especially as some of the exotic woods take a finish from a sharp scraper that hardly needs any sanding - which is great when it's the base of a deep box that's hard to reach to sand.

tekno.mage

 

[CHJ]

tm, scrapers were in use for centuries before the advent of the fluted gouge, I've never had any hang-up about using them. It's the finished item that matters and as long as you have a method that you are comfortable with I don't see a problem.

On the Saw Tooth Forstner bit front, do you open up the bore in stages or try to do it in one? I find that keeping the speed down and going up through the sizes helps. Try forming a cone in the face to keep the drills centralised when starting as they obviously have no centre location, if the wood is particularly dry/hard I use a normal 13mm twist drill to start then limit depth of forstner bits to avoid central small hole at bottom. Admittedly you still have to scrape the last couple of mm to the side of the twist drill hole..

 

[Lightweeder]

Chas - thanks for posting the tool rest.

Will try increasing forstner bit up from tiny. Glad I've found a use for the set I bought a couple of years ago. Thanks also for putting my mind at rest re scrapers.