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Sorry, this weeks post is a little skimpy. Our Patriot Turners- @AndrewB provides most of this week's subject matter. He is trying out a different finish for his bowls. Andrew compares this finish to the one he was previously using in this post- In this post, Andrew does another Padauk bowl. It gave him a little trouble but like all turners, we adapt and overcome! Andrew's post on this project- It happens to all of us. Maybe just a little thinner, one more pass.... Oh $h!t!! Sorry Andrew, how about a soap dish! Undaunted, Andrew pressed on with a maple blank. This one is a complete success! What’s Coming Up- More and more interactive remote demonstrations are becoming available. A short promotional from Lyle Jamieson- Just a reminder about the AAW's event with David Ellsworth- Click on the above image for the link to more information and registration. Cindy Drozda is doing a demonstration of gilding a turning. This is a great way to add flair to a project! Click on the above image for the link to Cindy's site and registration information. While you are there, check out the future demonstrations on October 31 and November 13. For The Newbies- The latest edition of Woodturning Monthly is available at- https://www.woodworkersjournal.com/woodturning-monthly/?utm_medium=email Head on over to the site and look for an article on Banksia Pods- Expand Your Horizons- Looks like Cindy is our featured performer this week! She provided a free video showing how she fits finials to lids- She also posted a video demonstrating how to sharpen a bandsaw blade while it is installed on the bandsaw. She admits that this process doesn't produce the results of a new blade but in a pinch it works! New Turning Items- I must be looking in the wrong places. Couldn't find any thing to spend your money on! Everything Else- Rick Turns posted the list of last weeks YouTube videos- Back during the summer, the tree guys dropped of a large cherry log. I cut it into bowl blanks and turned several roughed out bowls. I have been experimenting with the soap/water soak on rough blanks. Each blank was submerged for about 3 days and then transferred to a paper bag of shavings. Life got busy and I didn't get back to them until over the weekend. This is one of the blanks. It stayed round and no splits. There was some warping but not too bad. There were two knots, one larger than the other. The Starbond medium thick black CA really did a nice job of affixing them and creating an interesting color contrast. This bowl will have 2 smaller siblings and will go to the guys who work on our HVAC stuff. The smaller ones are currently soaking. I think I might try Rick Turns' light bulb dryer instead of the shavings. We'll see how it goes. Safe turning and stay well

It’s the end of Sept so for me I start getting the Xmas present stash going. My usual is ice cream scoops, salt and pepper mills and bowls. Today I didn’t have a lot of time so rather then get involved in the latest cabinet project I turned a handle for an ice cream scoop. I actually found a relative that doesn’t already have one. I have been giving them out for years. Of all the items I make they are by far the most popular and quickest to make. Usually less than an hour start to finish. This one is cherry. Paul

I had a little fun in the shop this morning. Soon I'll be firing up some chairs to build, and right now I am kind of jigging up and tooling up for this big project. Besides the jigs my son and I have been working on, today I got in the shop and made one complete mallet, and I have a couple more in the wings that need to be made as well. Before I took these images I had already made my layout lines and cut the mallet handle slots on my table saw. I simply set my table saw t-slot miter to 4 degrees and cut the slots in from one side then I set it at 4 degrees the other way and cut the other slot in the other side, then I hogged it out with several passes over the table saw blade. My 12" blades have 1/4" wide teeth so it didn't take long to hog the slots out. I laid out 3 mallets and gang sawed them. I cleaned up the slots with shoulder plane, the slots were heavily kerfed so I used the shoulder plane to knock the kerfs down, not all the way, but just enough to clean it up. I cut my lay out lines to produce the mallet blank halves. The key angle here is 5 degrees on the face. This allows your mallet to be used flush on a bench without your knuckles hitting the bench top but at the same time to have a sweet spot at the arc of your swing or tapping. Blanks ready to be glued up The handles are just dry fit into the slots. To get a great fit I had to sneak up on the handle widths, as not all handle slots in each mallet were the same as the next, because I cut these on the table saw without any jigs, just eyeballing lines is all. So each mallet was a tad different. I had to plane each handle to fit each slot right. I'll have a better assembly process next time, I plan on making many of these and pass them out as gifts and possibly sell them as well. A dry fit looking at the top of the mallet, the slot is tapered, so the bottom is tight and snug, the top is flared out leaving room for the wedges to secure the mallet. When I do these again I'll cut the slots so there is not much of a flare out at the top, it's really not needed. I think a 2 degree slot flare would suffice next time instead of the 4 degree. Lots of glue in around the handle, and on the wedges, I wanted the entire slot filled with either wood or glue, securing it for life. I tapped the outer wedges in just a tad, and I drove home the two center wedges pretty hard. Keep in mind, if you make a mallet, the wedges must be tapped in perpendicular to the grain to avoid splitting the wood. Cleaned up the glue a tad I used my bow arc to make the arc on the top of the mallet. Was an arc needed? No, but the mallet looks better with some shape to it. The arc All the edges of the mallet were chamfered with my block plane and the handle of the mallet of was shaped using my draw knife and a card scraper. The finished mallet at the right, and my two roughs waiting in the wings on the left. I put a very heavy coat of Watco Danish Oil on and wiped off. Here is a fun picture showing the hand tools I used to help make this mallet, it took a combination of my table saw to make the slots, the shoulder plane to clean up the slots, the miter saw to cut the blanks at 5 degrees, and my hand tools to shape and make it interesting. It's hard to see, but the chamfers I put into the handle and the edges of the head, are less than perfect, but that's alright, it's a mallet! The most difficult part was shaping the handle with my draw knife, ash is so brittle and grainy, it shapes horribly with hand tools, so I had to follow up my draw knifed handle with a card scraper. I'll be finishing the other two tomorrow. The main reason I built this mallet was for my chairs, I can't use a regular steel hammer without leaving marks, and a rubber mallet bounces too much. I already gave this mallet a test drive and I also used it on some chisels, I love it. I did not use any plans, I just read up on the required angle of the face of the mallet, and made my mallet thicker than the average. Most mallets I looked at were in the 2 3/4" thickness range, I made mine at 3 1/4", and I am glad I did, it has a nice big face. Thanks for following along!

My son approached me last month and asked if we could build a desk for his bedroom for this upcoming school year, he is planning on a ton of homework and being in 10th grade and all, the work is going to get harder and harder. He asked me to help him build the desk just before I went into the hospital back in early June, I was in bad shape for the first few weeks coming out of the hospital and meanwhile he was asking me when we can start the desk, bless his little soul and heart, as crappy as I was feeling, he felt that ol Dad could get up and go and power through it all with a desk build. I had to put it off, with the way I was feeling, it wasn't even safe for me to be out there in the shop, and the fact that he asked me during that time period, and asked a few more times, indicates I was putting on a pretty positive attitude show for the family, despite how I was feeling. So, now that I am feeling pretty ok, much better than before, me and the boy went to the lumber yard and picked up a few cherry boards. The desk will be cherry, with walnut legs, he wanted two tone. Actually he wanted a Walnut desk, but once we got to the yard, the walnut was just too expensive, so he came around to cherry. We have a budget and we needed to stay within. And it so happens that I had some left over walnut so we'll incorporate the walnut into the mainly cherry desk somehow, thinking possibly the legs will be walnut. I had my boy rip down the boards on the Shopsmith, he did pretty good, burned the cherry on one edge and I then I took the second board and showed him how to use moderate steady feed rate and also keeping it against the fence. Once we had the boards sized, we chose one edge to join, the boards will be cut in half, and folded against each-other and glued edge to edge. I showed my son Jeroid how to handle the big No. 8C, he knows how mostly as he worked with me often years ago, but many years have gone by since he's been by my side in the shop, so picking up the plane again took some practice, fortunately we left the board wide by an 1/8" because I knew Jeroid was going to need practice room to get the edge right. Jeroid took a few passes on the edge and did pretty good, he had a few issues keeping the plane in constant contact with the edge, but he figured it out, I just stood back and let him error, and figure it out. He did. He really got the hang of it, and started to enjoy the process. By the last couple passes he had some shavings singing from the plane, I could tell he felt really good about what he was doing. The edge did get a little off, so I showed him how to get back to 90 with a little lateral adjustment of the plane iron, and he brought it back to square in about 4 or 5 passes. After he joined the boards, we cut them down and glued them up, that is where we are at right now, we have two desk ends, next we'll get the inner dividers joined and glued up. Thanks for reading along, seeya all next time!

Yes, I realize it is Thursday. But in my defense- I had this entire post written last evening and just before it was to be submitted- it disappeared. Not sure what combinations of keys I pressed but I was staring at a blank post entering screen. Please check the "Everything Else" topic about Ruth Niles! Our Patriot Turners- @Gerald showed us the progress he was making on a beautiful piece of cherry burl- a gift from his son. Geral certainly did this piece of wood proud! @AndrewBis not one to sit around and waste time. He posted several projects he is working. First is a birch bowl. Andrew is really applying the suggestions you all have been providing and it shows in this piece. He is also working on a cup and a goblet- Finally, Andrew started on a fantastic looking piece of exotic wood (Bhilwara). Can't wait to see this when the finish hits it! A while back we were discussing finishes. There were several posts this week on that topic. First, @Ron Altier asked us about a home brew finish he read about. Our members had lots of input on this one. Another post dealt with oil and wax finishes. @AndrewB was curious about using sesame seed oil and beeswax. The type of oil used with this mixture must be carefully chosen to avoid it becoming rancid. @Gerald suggested using Walnut oil as a finish. Walnut oil, specifically formulated for this purpose, is food safe and will not create a problem for users with food allergies. The following link is useful for understanding the safety aspect. https://www.woodstockmagazine.com/2016/06/06/113196/walnut-oil-or-mineral-oil-learn-why-andrew-prefers-walnut-oil-to-protect-his-bowls This is one example of what is available- https://bowlmakerinc.com/product/oil-wax-finish-8-oz/ What’s Coming Up- Craig Timmerman is offering Interactive Remote Demonstrations. More information can be found at his website- https://www.armadillowoodworks.com/index.html For The Newbies- The other week we were having a discussion on how to handle grain tearout. @Gerald mentioned a reverse turning technique. "Rick Turns" posted a video on turning a vase. In that video, he uses the reverse turning technique. Expand Your Horizons- We have been looking for ways to make a wooden vessel waterproof. Here's a fairly low tech method- New Turning Items- I'd like to extend a big Thumbs Up to @FlGatorwood for this weeks new turning item! Retail price is $3799.99. I found it at Woodturners Wonders for $3500. Just in case you haven't saved up enough of your lunch money for the lathe, here's another offering. This is very similar to Jerry Marcental's chuck plate- https://woodturningtoolstore.com/product/special-elio-dr-safe-drive-set-of-two-2-5-3-5/ Everything Else- Rick Turns Youtube video list from last week- On a personal note, Ruth Niles lives a very short trip from here and I have visited her shop on several occasions. You won't meet a nicer person than Ruth. This past week some A**H*le hacked her Instagram account and set up a scam in her name. The scammer is impersonating her and advertising a seminar for turners. This is not Ruth! I played along with the scam to find out more. You register ( used fake info) by email. They tell you to buy a Nike gift card for $100. Then send them a photo of the card numbers so they can register you. As Ruth said, it is doubtful anyone would fall for that but she is really worried about her business reputation. Please spread the word that this is a scam and Ruth has no part in it. Thanks! Safe turning and stay well

Started today on a cherry burl my son gave me for Christmas in 2017. this is what it looked like after after cutting it open on bandsaw. Mounted between centers and tried to get a place to do mortise. No luck so went with a glue block. Used medium CA to attach this. finally got the bottom shaped and on to sanding which went well. Now on to hollowing and that that was rough. This is is what I started with. After breaking the glue bond and then breaking the sacrificial faceplate I tool another approach. Used myArbortech ball carver to get down to solid wood. Drilled to ease the hollowing and finished for the day at what you see.

First batch of ornaments for the year. Mostly maple, cherry, and walnut, there are a couple sycamore globes. There is one sea urchin ornament, that one has ebony finials. We spent a few days on Jacksonville beach with my wife's brother and his wife. Two of our best friends in the world. Picked some sea urchins and this ornament will go to them as a remembrance. Most of these are dyed "inside out". A couple local gift shops sell a few of these and those are the most popular. To me, it's hard beat just plain wood grain. Thanks for looking! Steve

Have a current order for honey dippers, this is the first batch of 20 finished. Some of the these have some really nice grain in the lids. Steve

I just came off of building two large bookcases so I needed some play time in the shop. I built 2 walnut and cherry flag cases for my Etsy store but at my wife’s insistence, I built 5 coffee mills. One for my son, one for my daughter, two for the store and one for me. I did learn that there’s a huge difference in the mechanisms. I originally bought them from Amazon (Penn State) and they were junk. Tried my go to store of Woodcraft but they didn’t carry them. Rockler had them on sale for $20 so I bought 6 of them.

Did a little lumber shopping today. This is our local hardwood dealer. Reel Lumber of Riverside CA. Great folks, great selection. My haul, a sheet of 3/8" BB and some Cherry for more stools. Heading home now!

Hi Guys, New to the forum and just recently resumed my woodworking (5 kids need no further explanation). I drew this shaker style step in sketchup, and made it from local cherry, it has a dutch oil finish. I appreciate the wealth of knowledge that the forum provides and am excited about learning all I can and honing my skills (considered an amateur). cheers dsb

Had a chance to get in the shop so I put together some scraps I had to make this band saw box.The bulk of the box is African mahogany with a strip of cherry down the middle. As things moved along I got a bit ahead of myself and started to cut the drawers out of the top slider before cutting off the front and back . Found enough cherry to make the front and back of the top slider using the damaged piece as a template. The handles are black walnut.

Yesterday, Friday, we picked up around 70 BF of mesquite, a few BF of pistachio and several 5” bowl blanks of differing species to haul to IL on 11/6. Will bring back a load off walnut, cherry and maple. My back is sore. Now, relaxing in the beautiful sun in Tucson. Gonna get to 85 glorious degrees, today. Monday, we head back to the mesa, where it'll be 67°. Not bad....yet.

Local habitat store had some dowel rods for a buck a piece. Got these Maple and Cherry ones in my stash now.

Today I made a band saw box out of a piece of domestic cherry fire wood. Herb

My wife and a good friend have a birthday coming soon and I wanted to make them something different/special. The 3/8” thick tray sides are splayed 20 degrees with box joints. The splayed box joints are inspired from a project in a 2009 Woodsmith magazine. The woods are walnut and cherry. The finish is (1) coat BLO and (2) coats clear shellac. Thanks for looking. Danl