Ryedale Woodturners
This website is being updated from August 2022. This is an archive page.
Mark Hancock
Thursday 1 November 2018
Snainton Woodworking Supplies
A first visit to the club in the long and illustrious career of Mark Hancock, who is based in Worcestershire. He combined the three local clubs - ours, Thirsk and Jorvik - to make a mini northern tour.
Rocking vase
I didn't quite pick up what Mark called the piece he was making, and he didn't like the name but couldn't remember a new one he had thought of. The main point was that it allowed a number of different techniques to be demonstrated. The start was turning to round, then cutting a large tenon.
With the spindle - sorry, parallel grain piece - held in large jaws on the tenon, Mark roughed out a vase shape with a flared neck, and then hollowed it out.
He started with a long spoonshaped bit that he had come across on his travels, good for cutting a hole as it is slightly tapered, so the front cuts a hole wider than the rear, reducing any chance of the sides catching.
Attention was paid to the smoothness of the inside, in case anyone put their fingers in to test it had been done properly. The width of the walls was tested with fingers and with calipers. I think these are the Veritas thickness calipers, that have a locking nut on the insde of the leg rather than through it, allowing the legs to be pulled apart rather than screwed apart. Around £50 a pair.
With the inside hollowed, and the neck shaped and smooth, more bulk could be removed from the body of the vase. The blank was "weathered sycamore", fairly wet. Mark prefers freshly cut timber which cuts well before the grain has settled too much.
To refine the shape once formed, Mark used a set of cabinet scrapers he had cut and ground to suit his purposes. He felt they were quite safe to hold against the wood, no toolrest involved, and they just allowed that extra control of the blade where a handled tool on a rest would limit the scope for fine movement.
Next the piece was attacked with an Arbortech and King Arthur cutter, creating five rings (an odd number), and then 8 grooves along the body (marked out by eye, using the 4 chuck jaws as a guide). The result was a "bobbled" pattern.
These were further refined with a cutting wheel. I think a Saburr 2 inch donut cutting wheel was used, on a Merlin mini grinder, but Mark did say Proxxon or Dremel or Arbortech long neck would all do a similar job. Hobby v. professional quality tools often depend on the use of plastic or metal in gearing. Durability is the key difference. Further improvements could be made with rasps or microplanes.
With the texturing done, the next task was to create a long point tapered to a narrow point. Still held on the tenon, the other end was supported with a golf ball, with a peg insert in it to hold in the tailstock.
So what do you do when you have spent an hour creating your turning? You set fire to it of course! Often called ebonising, this is simply burning the surface to get a black finish. Iit is important to burn at high temperature to avoid cracking of the wood, so a MAP PRO propane cylinder was used, rather than butane. These are available from Screwfix (plumbers use them).
Wearing a protective glove and over a heat pad resting on the lathe bed, the flame turned the vase black fairly quickly. The high temperatiure means it works rapidly.
With the whole piece ebonised, Mark used a dedicated "black wheel", a polishing mop just for this purpose, to remove the carbon and shine up the surface. Do not use extraction at this stage, or any part of the burning process, for obvious safety reasons.
With 10 p.m. approaching, Mark finished his very informative demonstration, having covered a variety of techniques and almost finished a rocking vase. Not to gallery standard, but good enough to give us all a few ideas.