Not so good, can't make an apple :(

[Grahamshed]

I brought a piece of African Jackelberry ebony from Matthew at workshop heaven the other day. A flat board about 16inches by 4inches by 10mm ( isn) for about £16 I think. Silly money but lovely wood and it would make a hell of a lot of apple stalks

 

[Richard Findley]

Good work Bob. Glad you found my tips useful. Nice to see the evolution, it's amazing what a difference a tiny change can make.

I use ebony now for my stalks, I buy reject finger boards from Lincolnshire Woodcraft. Good price and ideal for stalks and little bits like lace bobbins.

All the best

Richard

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Things to get right still include not just using a twig for the stem but turning some dark wood like ebony or rosewood. I just don't have any and ebony costs a fortune (£50 for one modest sized square blank in toolpost).

You could alsways soak a rusty bit of wire wool in vinegar and use the fluid to "ebonise" a bit of oak. I've been playing around with that recently and it's amazing how quickly the wood darkens.

Now that is an interesting idea. Sort of "home-made bog oak"

Have you pictures? I'd really like to see the effect it had

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Good work Bob. Glad you found my tips useful. Nice to see the evolution, it's amazing what a difference a tiny change can make.

I use ebony now for my stalks, I buy reject finger boards from Lincolnshire Woodcraft. Good price and ideal for stalks and little bits like lace bobbins.

All the best

Richard

Brilliant. Just called L/Wcraft and ordered 2 Thanks for the heads up. Less than half the price of toolpost and about quadruple the usable material for this particular job.

 

[woodfarmer]

Today I had another go whilst sheltering from the rain.

Thanks to bob and Richard Findley for pointing me in the right direction, not that I have got the hang of it yet so still using small offcuts of building softwood.

I guess you might call this a crapapple But I know it is too small and too short, the taper should be a slight convex curve and I need to round the shoulders more. The stem I made from a piece of greenheart, turned then shaped on a grinding wheel. Bit more practice and I might progress to good wood and make some keepers.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Its actually very close Woody. I reckon if you just got those corners joining up to the middle with a fair curve you'd be pretty much there. I think perhaps the stem is too large for the scale of apple also but that's easily remedied. It looks like you marked the 30mm from the end to get the shoulder ratio right.

They're quite the little pigs to master aren't they.

Here's a tip for those corners. If the gouge isn't working for you, try a 1/2" round nosed scraper. Ultra sharp and carefully do a pull cut round the bend. I find sometimes the scraper lets me concentrate on the shape rather than the tool because you're less worried about the angle of presentation as you are with the gouge. I gouge it all till the last few cuts then get the curve I want with the scraper.

 

[woodfarmer]

Turning the 3mm diameter stem on that, is very different to my comfort zone of spinning 18 inch square section oak ( not so square now I have the bandsaw working). I have to confess, I sometimes use my skew chisel as a scraper and have switched back and fro from a 3/8 spindle gouge to my favourite tool my 1/2" bowl gouge which just seems to go wherever I want.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I also do the vast bulk of the material removal with a fingernail ground bowl gouge (though the 3/8" is my favourite). I get all the basic shape with the gouge and then finesse the corners with the scraper. If I'm bored I'll sometimes do the initial corner creation with the long point of the skew because the sheering action leaves a lovely finish on the end grain. But I always find the scraper is the easiest tool to finesse the final shape with because I'm looking at the top of the apple rather than the end of the tool.

For the 3mm stem, have you got a 1/4" detail spindle gouge? If you sharpen a small detail spindle gouge just before the finishing cuts it's absolutely superb at peeling away those last few layers of very fine material to get the thin diameter you want.

 

[Grahamshed]

I reckon you've got it Larry. specially the one on the left, that looks almost lifelike

 

[woodfarmer]

I also do the vast bulk of the material removal with a fingernail ground bowl gouge (though the 3/8" is my favourite). I get all the basic shape with the gouge and then finesse the corners with the scraper. If I'm bored I'll sometimes do the initial corner creation with the long point of the skew because the sheering action leaves a lovely finish on the end grain. But I always find the scraper is the easiest tool to finesse the final shape with because I'm looking at the top of the apple rather than the end of the tool.

For the 3mm stem, have you got a 1/4" detail spindle gouge? If you sharpen a small detail spindle gouge just before the finishing cuts it's absolutely superb at peeling away those last few layers of very fine material to get the thin diameter you want.

For the stem, I cut a short piece about 1/4 inch thick by 1/2 inch wide. Jammed it into a Jacobs chuck and turned the stem using skew and 3/8 spindle gouge ( my smallest). the turned it around and blended it in using my 1/2 inch bowl gouge and the spindle gouge. Fished it off on a bench grinder. Think the stem not too bad for size, the apple however is a really small one. see pic.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I see...difficult to judge scale. The egg really puts that in perspective.

 

[woodfarmer]

I see...difficult to judge scale. The egg really puts that in perspective.

Maybe not quite as small as you thought. The white egg is a small goose egg

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

LOL...Larry....are you deliberately trying to confuse me with perspective
Next you'll show that the apple is actually 8 feet tall but placed 30 yards back. This is like that famous artwork where the stairs are always going up

 

[Grahamshed]

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

This one.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Got my first chance to turn the ebony I received on Tuesday. After Richard's advice I bought 2 reject ebony fingerboards for the apple stem turnings. Did a batch run of them today and they're a little too big but certainly got the hang of it.

I bandsaw'd then to square. The fingerboards were just under 1/2" thickness so I just bandsaw'd then square and mounted in the Jacobs chuck placed in the headstock. I managed to overcome the chuck coming loose while spinning by simply gently wooden malleting it further into the morse taper. It didn't try to wind out at all after that which really helped. I must say, sticking a Jacobs chuck in the headstock is a very versatile work holding solution for small stuff and saved me having to bother with pin jaw changeover.

Turned about 6 stems and then a couple of apples. I started by cutting the jaunty angle with a gents saw but later found just sanding it hand held on my belt sander was easier.

It's definitely a touch of class to finish fruit in this way though the ebony cost me £27 incl postage so a bit of a luxury.

 

[Grahamshed]

Yep, I think you've got the hang of it They look really good.

 

[Woodmonkey]

I had a go at this today, got it right on the fourth attempt. Didn't do the stems yet.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

yup.....lovely....got that sussed then

 

[Grahamshed]

Thats 4 of your 5 a day, wheres the last one ?