A blog about woodturning

On my last blog post, I’d just finished chainsawing a rather large yew bowl blank ready for rough turning. It now needs to be prepared for mounting onto the lathe. See the bowl being turned

Back in January, I was lucky enough to acquire a yew tree and have spent many a day chainsawing and rough turning the timber. Most of the bowl blanks are now drying in my shed, but I’ve saved the largest piece of wood until now. Continue reading...

This rather large piece of timber was rough turned some time ago and is now dry enough to be completed. As you can probably guess from the photos, it presented a few challenges along the way! Continue reading...

Walking through crow park in Whitehaven, I was surprised to come across this burry stump of an elm tree lying beside the path. It appears as though a long line of trees have been felled and about four of them are elms. Continue reading...

I’ve just been helping with a major tree planting project which will likely take all winter to complete. This is one of the many outside jobs I love doing and gives me a huge amount of satisfaction. Continue reading...

Ever since buying the VB36, my old dominion lathe has not been used at all! I knew there was no point in keeping it, so I advertised it last week and was very pleased when a chap form the Czech Republic wanted to buy it straight away! Continue reading...

Collecting timber is a big part of my work, but this is slightly more challenging! I was approached last week by a friend who needs some help thinning out her woodland. Although there are some larger ash and sycamore trees, the majority are oaks which were planted in the mid ‘80s and have not been tended to since. Continue reading...

To those of you familiar with wood turning, this is the most ‘productive’ tool for turning bigger pieces and as far as I am aware, the most enjoyable to use. It is easily sharpened on a bench grinder without the use of fancy jigs and its profile, although important, can be continuously re-shaped to suit different applications. Find out more about the gouge..

It’s been six months since I splashed out on a new VB36 lathe and have nothing but praise for its performance. Interestingly however, this was the first machine I used when I started turning and I’ve wanted one ever since. Over the past six years I have used a variety of machines, but nothing compares to the power and solidity of the VB. VB36 lathe review