Ornament Time

Vaughn McMillan

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Over the past week or so, I decided to see if I still remembered how to turn Christmas Ornaments. The last ones I turned were in December 2010, so needless to say I was a bit rusty. Plus, I'm more of a bowl turner than a spindle turner, so I still need to work on getting the finials and icicles a bit thinner. Baby steps...

These two are essentially practice pieces with scrap sycamore and dyed maple. They are 5" and 6" long, finished with Formby's Tung Oil Finish and buffed.

Sycamore Pair 2018 01 - 800.jpg

After those two were done, I decided to try with some more expensive wood. This one has a body of pau ferro, with ebony finial and icicle. It has no finish...just buffed bare wood with Renaissance Wax as a finishing touch. (I use Renaissance Wax on everything I turn. It adds a bit of shine and keeps the fingerprints away.) It's about 5" long, and like the others, I would have liked to go thinner with the ebony parts. Ah well, something to shoot for next time.

Pau Ferro 2018 01 - 800.jpg

And lastly, this is an example of what happens when you go a bit too thin. This is more pau ferro, so unfortunately this one cost me a bit. (I really prefer to turn free wood, not this store bought stuff.)

Blowout 800.jpg

Comments, critiques, and pointing and ridicule are all welcome. :D
 
May be practice pieces but look very good. Can't beat them with a stick. That bowl is just the way you wanted with natural edge. The grain is really nice.
David
 
Everything goods from here.

Having just watched "Jurassic World" for the first time, I think there might be a market for the kind of "engineered DNA - escaped!" turnery exhibited by that last one. :)
 
Am I correct in saying the center section of those ornaments are hollow forms and that is why the 'too thin' one blew apart? If so, WOW, you did a great job on those that did not blow apart.

Yep, they're all hollowed out, primarily to make them lighter in weight. As small as they are, the hollowing only takes a few minutes. And as I learned the hard way, anything more than a few minutes is too much. :D

These are small enough that I don't use my laser-guided hollowing rig. I just drill a hole to create the initial opening and give myself a depth guide.The wall thickness is determined with guesswork, sound, and feel. After I get the ball hollowed out, I drill a bit deeper so that when I part the piece off the lathe, the hole goes all the way through. Then I turn the finial and icicle to fit into and fill the holes. I need to turn a few more of these, so I'll try to remember to take some pics along the way to show the process I'm using.
 
Those are really nice ornaments... I've turned a few, but they always seem to come out so clunky... I just keep them in a box and don't show them.

I really need to work on doing small turnings... might eventually improve the ornaments some.
 
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