Perhaps a slightly controversial turning question...

[gregmcateer]

Wow
Just give your Knick - knack to someone else who does not really want them ?

Or to someone who does want them. Or to local charities, who can sell them to someone who does want them.
'Useful' things -
Rolling pin
Plates
Bowls
Spatulas
Porringer
Pegs
Knobs and handles
Chess set
Etc
Oh, and I make a lot of interesting shaped firewood

 

[Yorkieguy]

I sometimes turn things that are useful, sometimes both decorative and useful, and sometimes, things which you might term 'nick knacks' for no other reason that I can. An example of a 'nick knack' which has no purpose in life and is nothing more than a conversation piece, which evokes comments such' as how did you do that'? Or 'I wouldn't have the patience', which infers that all you need is the equipment and patience, which rather overlooks that you also need skill.

First two pics are of such a'nick knack'. It's a little London Plane cube, turned inside a larger cube, which is turned inside a larger cube, which overall measures 55mm (2.25"). Only two tools are needed to make it, and you make those tools yourself. It's more like 'engineering' than woodturning because you need to be accurate to at least 0.5mm, which involves lots of stopping and starting the lathe to take measurements..

Next item is a square edged bowl, also in London Plane, which I think looks a bit nicer than the more usual 'round 'n brown' bowl and is rather more tricky to turn too. I've made a few for family members who rather like them.

A Windsor chair, which involves steam bending, (the arms and the 'crinoline' which supports the legs) woodworking (the seat), and woodturning the tapered sticks, legs and stays.

A pen , and a pen box in elm and walnut. (I made three for my granddaughters).

A lignum vitae and ash mallet made from a bowling green 'wood'.

If I didn't enjoy making these items, I wouldn't have bothered. Hobbies are about the enjoyable and relaxing use of scarce leisure time - not one more thang in life to get stressed out about.

Hope that's of interest.

Quote of the day:

"Use what talents you possess - the woods would be very silent if the only birds that sand there were those that sang the best".

 

[Yorkieguy]

And here's the mallet:

 

[peter-harrison]

What makes turning different from nearly all other kinds of woodwork is that you don't have to plan (of course you can if you want to, and if you're doing something complicated you will probably need to)
So woodturning can be a bit like improvised music. I like it for that reason- it's the one area of woodwork when I can start something with no idea what it's going to look like when it's done.

 

[M_Chavez]

Chessmen?

Some prototyping work on a 1933 Flohr-Botvinnik finals set, Bobby Fischer's 'Dubrovnik' set, and comparison between bishops: Soviet club, 1933 F-B, 'Tal' set (believed to be a "Grossmeister" equivalent designed for high-level championships in Soviet Georgia) and Dubrovnik "Minceta".

Soviets sets alone can take up years of your time, never mind vintage upright designs or more classical Stauntons.

 

[M_Chavez]

PS I also originally got a lathe (Record DML24...not sure most folks here will even call it a lathe...) for peanuts to turn some chisel handles first, and I don't get excited by the knick-knacks to be honest (but I do recognise the huge amount of time & skill going into them).
Making chessmen is extremely addictive though, and you can make designs that are rare, not available commercially, or just make them better than factory. A humble soviet club set looks & feels very different when it's made out of olive & rosewood and mirror polished with a kiss of shellac, instead of being turned by a barely sober sovietsky factory worker out of furniture factory offcuts and splattered with nitro lacquer.

While the market should be able to take up to £1k price per set without too much resistance, I don't see any way to turn these for a reasonable profit - once you take into account tool sharpening, prototyping, turning, polishing, ditching the extra pawns & pieces that are outside of your variance tolerance, carving the knights, weighting the chessmen with lead, felting, making/finding a suitable box, you would have clocked so many man hours that anything around £1k will most likely look like giving the sets away for free.

Warning: lots of chessmen porn. Do not click the links without stocking up on food and liquids to sustain you for several days.

Huge Soviet collection: (My main interest. Easy-ish to turn, handle exceptionally well. And most of the 20th century world champions and challengers would have played one of these as their standard set).
https://sovietchesssets.com/gallery/
Dubrovniks (Bobby Fischer's personal pick)
https://www.dubrovnikchessmen.com/dubrovnik-chess-sets.html
Austrian uprights
http://www.chess-museum.com/-the-el...al-show-november-2014-till-february-2015.html
Vienna coffehouse
http://www.chess-museum.com/old-vienna--coffeehouse.html
Czech
http://www.chess-museum.com/check-or-czech---the-czech-club-pieces.htmlhttp://www.chess-museum.com/czech-sets.html
German (second link for onion-tops)
http://www.chess-museum.com/german-sets.htmlhttps://www.chess-collection.de/newpage510dabb1
Northern uprights:
https://www.houseofstaunton.com/the...pieces-the-camaratta-collection-4-5-king.htmlhttps://royalchessmall.com/products...nburgh-chess-pieces-only-set-weighted-boxwoodhttps://chessantiques.com/product/reproduction-dublin-chessmen/
Regency ( There's tons of originals available for peanuts on ebay and personally, I'd hate to play with something like this, but hey, it's a turning project)
http://www.chess-museum.com/regency-chess-sets.htmlhttp://www.chess-museum.com/st-george-chessmen.html
Minimalist modern takes:
https://www.noj.si/?mod=catalog&action=view&group=47&lang=enhttps://www.regencychess.co.uk/the-empire-knight-ebony-palisander-chess-set-p-1203.html
If you've made your way through all this turned goodness, you'll notice that I haven't posted any traditional Stauntons at all. And there's probably more Staunton designs than non-Staunton ones listed above.

Fire up that lathe!

 

[Stigmorgan]

PS I also originally got a lathe (Record DML24...not sure most folks here will even call it a lathe...) for peanuts to turn some chisel handles first, and I don't get excited by the knick-knacks to be honest (but I do recognise the huge amount of time & skill going into them).
Making chessmen is extremely addictive though, and you can make designs that are rare, not available commercially, or just make them better than factory. A humble soviet club set looks & feels very different when it's made out of olive & rosewood and mirror polished with a kiss of shellac, instead of being turned by a barely sober sovietsky factory worker out of furniture factory offcuts and splattered with nitro lacquer.

While the market should be able to take up to £1k price per set without too much resistance, I don't see any way to turn these for a reasonable profit - once you take into account tool sharpening, prototyping, turning, polishing, ditching the extra pawns & pieces that are outside of your variance tolerance, carving the knights, weighting the chessmen with lead, felting, making/finding a suitable box, you would have clocked so many man hours that anything around £1k will most likely look like giving the sets away for free.

Warning: lots of chessmen porn. Do not click the links without stocking up on food and liquids to sustain you for several days.

Huge Soviet collection: (My main interest. Easy-ish to turn, handle exceptionally well. And most of the 20th century world champions and challengers would have played one of these as their standard set).
https://sovietchesssets.com/gallery/
Dubrovniks (Bobby Fischer's personal pick)
https://www.dubrovnikchessmen.com/dubrovnik-chess-sets.html
Austrian uprights
http://www.chess-museum.com/-the-el...al-show-november-2014-till-february-2015.html
Vienna coffehouse
http://www.chess-museum.com/old-vienna--coffeehouse.html
Czech
http://www.chess-museum.com/check-or-czech---the-czech-club-pieces.htmlhttp://www.chess-museum.com/czech-sets.html
German (second link for onion-tops)
http://www.chess-museum.com/german-sets.htmlhttps://www.chess-collection.de/newpage510dabb1
Norther uprights:
https://www.houseofstaunton.com/the...pieces-the-camaratta-collection-4-5-king.htmlhttps://royalchessmall.com/products...nburgh-chess-pieces-only-set-weighted-boxwoodhttps://chessantiques.com/product/reproduction-dublin-chessmen/
Regency ( There's tons of originals available for peanuts on ebay and personally, I'd hate to play with something like this, but hey, it's a turning project)
http://www.chess-museum.com/regency-chess-sets.htmlhttp://www.chess-museum.com/st-george-chessmen.html
Minimalist modern takes:
https://www.noj.si/?mod=catalog&action=view&group=47&lang=enhttps://www.regencychess.co.uk/the-empire-knight-ebony-palisander-chess-set-p-1203.html
If you've made your way through all this turned goodness, you'll notice that I haven't posted any traditional Stauntons at all. And there's probably more Staunton designs than non-Staunton ones listed above.

Fire up that lathe!

Nothing wrong with the DML24, that's what I have and it does me fine

 

[M_Chavez]

Works for me too, although I must admit it is quite limited compared to other offerings.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Works for me too, although I must admit it is quite limited compared to other offerings.

I get what you mean, it's very basic but I think that makes it an ideal beginners lathe, a much slower gear and a bigger swing over the bed would be nice though

 

[Yorkieguy]

Quote:

@ M Chavez: While the market should be able to take up to £1k price per set without too much resistance, I don't see any way to turn these for a reasonable profit - once you take into account tool sharpening, prototyping, turning, polishing, ditching the extra pawns & pieces that are outside of your variance tolerance, carving the knights, weighting the chessmen with lead, felting, making/finding a suitable box, you would have clocked so many man hours that anything around £1k will most likely look like giving the sets away for free.

End quote.

You couldn't make them at a profit if you're a hobbyist woodturner, but you could if you were a skilled, time-served production turner at the top of their game, who would turn most pieces (not all) in about five minutes just using a skew chisel. Someone like Steve Jones, for example - more than 40 years at it, about the 5th generation of a woodturning family. Admittedly there's rather more to a chess piece than just the turning, but turning is a major element. As to sharpening, pros don't have the time to faff around with Tormeks, Pro Edge, jigs and what not. To sharpen a skew, bowl gouge, roughing gouge etc by hand and eye is a minute's job.

Here are three short videos of Steve Jones at work:

One of forty stair bespoke stair spindles in 5 minutes:



Finial using only the skew, in under a minute:



Honey dipper, 5 minutes:



One of the issues that enthusiastic hobby turners soon come up against, is what do you do with the items that you turn?

For example, pen making is a popular facet of the hobby. It's not particularly challenging, and unless you buy needless equipment such as a pen press, isn't particularly expensive. Pens make nice gifts but there are only so many people in our circle of friends to whom to give them. So, if you want to keep turning pens, you can try to find more people to give them to - charities for example, as fund raisers, or you can try to sell them at craft fairs or online, or to friends to buy them for their friends (EG, for Christmas presents). What you can be sure of, is that while you'll probably get enough money to recompense you for the materials, you won't get any recompense for the time involved. What's more, instead of it being just a hobby, you introduce a commercial element to it.

Really, in any craft hobby, the 'payback' is the enjoyment we derive from it. When the enjoyment ceases, the lathe just gathers dust.

What I can never fathom out, is the irony of woodturners buying handled chisels rather than making their own handles, which is about the least skilled entry level task.

Just my thoughts - not everyone will concur.

 

[Cooper]

Only two tools are needed to make it, and you make those tools yourself.

Beautiful work and my curiosity is piqued, a picture of the DIY tools, would be very welcome.
Martin

 

[Yorkieguy]

These cubes were designed by the late Dave Springett, and featured in a five page article in Issue 127 of Woodturning Magazine some years ago. Most of Dave's designs were far more complex, and featured in a book entitled 'Woodturning Wizardry'. I've attached a picture of the two tools - one a 'hook tool' for hollowing out the cubes - the other, a 'square end tool. Both just made from ground down chisels. I've attached a sketch of the processes involved, and an extract of clips from the article in Woodturning Magazine.

The article showed a wooden chuck that could be made, but I got an engineering friend to make be a set of four jaws to fit my Nova chuck, which are tubular aluminium with silicone sleeving. I've shown a pic of completed cube held in the chuck, which also shows the tool test which needs to be made on which to rest the two tools when turning, as a conventional took rest would cause the tool to snatch. A sanding platform also has to be made on which to rest the cube to ensure that all the sides are sanded perfectly square.

The last picture shows the five sacrificial plugs that need to be turned to support each finished side as the work progresses or the inner cubes could otherwise break free. The main challenge is that all the dimensions need to be exact, or for example, the holes on the inner cubes will be off centre. Hence, it's necessary to keep stopping the lathe to check with a Vernier. As the cubes are quite small, the lathe needs to be run at quite a high speed - 3,000 RPM or so. (except of course when drilling the 18mm holes with a forstner bit and and the 9mm holes).

When all the turning has been completed, the two inner cubes should just break from from the eight 'webs' on the internal corners, then the webs of the larger cube can be ground away using a Dremel and 'ball burr'.

True, they take many hours to make, and the only time I feel like making two is just before I've made one! That said, they're my favourite waste of time. For forty years until I retired my time wasn't my own, but in retirement it is, so I dance to no-one's tune but my own. I have to say that I bit my tongue when people say 'Oh I couldn't do that - I wouldn't have the patience', inferring that only attribute needed is patience.

I hope that's of interest.

There are some illustrations of the sort of work which Dave Springett was fame for on the front of his book:

Woodturning Wizardry by David Springett

This is his obituary. A much respected and sadly missed gentleman.

David Springett, Warwickshire, Rugby, England

 

[Jacob]

......

Fire up that lathe!

Right ho will do!
Amazing how many different designs but still recognisable for what they are, Some of the bishops canons are a bit odd. Is it a pun on ecclesiastical titles? l Have only flipped through the first link! I like all the different little knights.

 

[M_Chavez]

It's incredible how many designs existed in each country and how the designs transformed in just over a hundred years.
I reckon even if I make a set a year for myself, I won't have enough lifespan left to try all the sets I like!

 

[Cooper]

These cubes were designed by the late Dave Springett, and featured in a five page article in Issue 127 of Woodturning Magazine some years ago. Most of Dave's designs were far more complex, and featured in a book entitled 'Woodturning Wizardry'. I've attached a picture of the two tools - one a 'hook tool' for hollowing out the cubes - the other, a 'square end tool. Both just made from ground down chisels. I've attached a sketch of the processes involved, and an extract of clips from the article in Woodturning Magazine.

The article showed a wooden chuck that could be made, but I got an engineering friend to make be a set of four jaws to fit my Nova chuck, which are tubular aluminium with silicone sleeving. I've shown a pic of completed cube held in the chuck, which also shows the tool test which needs to be made on which to rest the two tools when turning, as a conventional took rest would cause the tool to snatch. A sanding platform also has to be made on which to rest the cube to ensure that all the sides are sanded perfectly square.

The last picture shows the five sacrificial plugs that need to be turned to support each finished side as the work progresses or the inner cubes could otherwise break free. The main challenge is that all the dimensions need to be exact, or for example, the holes on the inner cubes will be off centre. Hence, it's necessary to keep stopping the lathe to check with a Vernier. As the cubes are quite small, the lathe needs to be run at quite a high speed - 3,000 RPM or so. (except of course when drilling the 18mm holes with a forstner bit and and the 9mm holes).

When all the turning has been completed, the two inner cubes should just break from from the eight 'webs' on the internal corners, then the webs of the larger cube can be ground away using a Dremel and 'ball burr'.

True, they take many hours to make, and the only time I feel like making two is just before I've made one! That said, they're my favourite waste of time. For forty years until I retired my time wasn't my own, but in retirement it is, so I dance to no-one's tune but my own. I have to say that I bit my tongue when people say 'Oh I couldn't do that - I wouldn't have the patience', inferring that only attribute needed is patience.

I hope that's of interest.

There are some illustrations of the sort of work which Dave Springett was fame for on the front of his book:

Woodturning Wizardry by David Springett

This is his obituary. A much respected and sadly missed gentleman.

David Springett, Warwickshire, Rugby, England

Thank, sorry to take so long replying. As I said I'm so impressed by the quality of your turning.
Martin

 

[Jonzjob]

Yorkieguy, that is quite impressive. I have done several ball in cube and it sounds quite similar.

The spalted beech was the first and I did the walnut one to make sure it wasn't a flook. Since then I hade turned several more and the ball always comes out spherical I have also had a coupe of 3D jigsaw puzzles too and I couldn't find all the bits

I would love the info on doing the cube in cube if that is possible?

 

[Jacob]

Table legs.
I agree about the knick knacks. You don't need many urns even if you do call them "hollow forms"
Kitchen stuff is good. Wooden bowls are really handy and seem to last forever. I've got one my dad made must be 70 years ago, walnut, still in use as a salad bowl. And round bread boards, plates etc. though rectangular shapes do it better.
Indian clubs are good for keep fit maniacs, and light wooden dumbbells.
Then of course there's always a need for handles, furniture knobs, pegs for coat racks etc

And table legs of course. There's probably more turned wood in tables than everything else put together.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The most commonly turned items in the world apparently are ..................................................................pens.

 

[Jacob]

The most commonly turned items in the world apparently are ..................................................................pens.

Nowadays maybe, while the fashion lasts, but historically, weight for weight, I'd bet on table legs. For numbers it'd be knobs surely?

 

[bobajobob]

Ask 2 people what they would do with a set of paint brushes - One would decorate a room the other would paint a masterpiece. It's all about attitude to your tools. I only have a simple lathe (Record CL2) but without it I could not have made the few examples attached. I'm still a relative beginner but knick-knacks derides the efforts of many for whom the joy of turning provides huge fulfillment.