I've had/got quite a lot of olive ash, it's beautiful but as you say does wear the cutting edge fairly quickly, I love the two tone colouration .Nice surprise bad suprise. After making the small scoop from JCs fire wood, I recalled Richard Raffins u-tube vidio on his signature scoop and bowl so have sarted working on a few sets from two bits of ash of the same length, one triangular and the other square. After measuring decided to cut into 4 then processed ready for turning. The rest of the day was spent devolving the scoop and bowl design and came up with theseView attachment 186942View attachment 186943Sat at the table reflecting on these two it dawned on me that the bowl was a differnt wood. So using google lens found it to be olive ash. (Nice suprise) Such a lovely wood so changed my plan and decided to put it back on the lathe for a complete re-sandingt o get rid of the niggling marks and the faint tear out I could feel on top of the lid, then finish. Here is what I was hoping forView attachment 186944View attachment 186945View attachment 186946View attachment 186947But in my caution not to over stress the wood the jaw was not tight enough and the bowl came adrift as I parted the tenon. (Bad suprise) View attachment 186951View attachment 186952A bit gutted to say the least. But on the bright side I've got a lovely lid for a future project and I'll re-turn the bottom half to sort out the rim. So Olive Ash what do you think. The end grain is darker than the long grain. Much harder than the ash and regularly had to resharpen the tools.
Today's turning is a game that has been in my head for a while, I have no idea if it already exists or if its a new idea but I'm calling it hangman's ballance, a few improvements are needed,
-firstly the base is too small/light so either I need to remount it, hollow and add weights which I don't think will be as simple as it sounds, I could drill another hole nearer the edge and make a finial or something to fill the centre but I'm not confident the side won't break out from the pressure.
- the disc isn't balanced at all but I'm not sure how to fix this
The base is Spalted Birch, the hangman is Beech from an old sports bench as is the little cone under the disc, the disc itself is also Beech made from a piece of kitchen worktop.
I still have the game pieces to make which will be a great use of scraps, using different and shapes mean players need to think about the piece they place
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Ahhhh, I must have seen it somewhere, didn't think I could have invented it , I currently have a lot of small offcuts of the beech worktop, loads of birch cuts too. Thinking of using current base and adding another piece to make storage for all the pieces, that way the I can increase the weight of the base to stop it tipping over.That game / the principle of it is reasonably common if you look on pinterest...
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Not sure though that any are as beautiful as yours!
I developed a balance game earlier this year (www.tippit.co.uk):
Now being produced semi-commercially - though currently still by hand (and expensive!)
the learning from that was that you need absolute precision over every aspect of it - total symmetry / perfect turning for the base / the platform has to be accurately central on the base - any bit of that not perfect and it doesn't start with neutral balance.
In mine, the pieces are different woods and there is a range of densities such that the most dense are twice the weight of the least dense - makes the game more challenging...
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Don't forget we are all waiting for the photographic grand reveal of your plants and covers in all their glory set up near your new deskI've had/got quite a lot of olive ash, it's beautiful but as you say does wear the cutting edge fairly quickly, I love the two tone colouration .
So yesterday I turned the last 2 pot covers from a long piece of cherry I was gifted by a fellow member about 2.5 years ago, it has developed some amazing spalting but is still cracking once cut, I had to work fairly quickly to get them turned and finished so I could line with resin, put a pretty thick resin coat in these two to help prevent any disastrous splits.
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Today's turning is a game that has been in my head for a while, I have no idea if it already exists or if its a new idea but I'm calling it hangman's ballance, a few improvements are needed,
-firstly the base is too small/light so either I need to remount it, hollow and add weights which I don't think will be as simple as it sounds, I could drill another hole nearer the edge and make a finial or something to fill the centre but I'm not confident the side won't break out from the pressure.
- the disc isn't balanced at all but I'm not sure how to fix this
The base is Spalted Birch, the hangman is Beech from an old sports bench as is the little cone under the disc, the disc itself is also Beech made from a piece of kitchen worktop.
I still have the game pieces to make which will be a great use of scraps, using different and shapes mean players need to think about the piece they place
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A more solid base - maybe with a drawer for storage - would work well - your version looks so much nicer than others I have seen, so worth persevering!Ahhhh, I must have seen it somewhere, didn't think I could have invented it , I currently have a lot of small offcuts of the beech worktop, loads of birch cuts too. Thinking of using current base and adding another piece to make storage for all the pieces, that way the I can increase the weight of the base to stop it tipping over.
I've just got 2 plants to take over and put in place, the spider plants also need repotting before I can make the pot covers but I've run out of potting mix so they will have to wait, will probably post on Tuesday next week once the work rush has subsidedDon't forget we are all waiting for the photographic grand reveal of your plants and covers in all their glory set up near your new desk
I still have the mortise on the bottom so reworking it shouldn't be too hard, need to see what I've got that is dry enough to work with, the whole thing is designed to come apart so everything is currently a friction fit that I've also waxed the tenon and mortise so they slide together easily without wearing loose too quickly.A more solid base - maybe with a drawer for storage - would work well - your version looks so much nicer than others I have seen, so worth persevering!
Looking good the pointy bit sticking out looks a bit lethalHad planned to look at balancing the disc but ended up making some more changes to the base, made the lid piece a flush fit to make it easier to fit some stays which I made from Oak, also decided to fit a Lignum Vitae collar to the lid for the upright, figure it being so dense the hole is less likely to open up with use, really like the contrast with the beech and birch.
Tomorrow I'll remove the 3 catches and put some CA in the screw holes then replace the screws and glue the lignum collar in place, might start making the play pieces next then work out how to balance the disc.
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Only if there's a poor looserLooking good the pointy bit sticking out looks a bit lethal
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