List of DEMONSTRATIONS

Click subject below for report▼

3" CUBES with Andy Ogilvie
ANIMALS with Paul Reeves
BIRD BOX with Paul Reeves
BOWL from a PLANK with Paul Reeves
BOWL HOLLOWING from BOTTOM with Paul Reeves
BOWL SAVING PRIMER with Paul Reeves
BOWL TURNING Masterclass with Les Thorne
BOWL TURNING TECHNIQUES with Paul Reeves
Pair BOWLS from a BOX with Andy Ogilvie
BOX of CONTRASTING WOODS with Paul Reeves
Double BOX designs with Paul Reeves
BALL in a BOX with Andy Ogilvie
BUTTONS with Paul Reeves
CLOCKS in WOOD with Andy Ogilvie
COLOURING with a SPLASH with Paul Reeves
COLOURING TECHNIQUES with Stewart Furini
GAVEL with Paul Reeves
HANDLES & FEET with Graham Turner
INSIDE-OUT TURNING with Bob Randall
IRIDESCENT DECORATION with Paul Reeves
JEWELLERY with Andy Ogilvie and Paul Reeves
KILNER JARS with Andy Ogilvie
KITCHEN ITEMS with Paul Reeves
LATHE ACCESSORIES with Paul Reeves
LIGHT BULBS in wood with Paul Reeves
MIXED SOLID MEDIA with Andy Ogilvie
MULTIPLE CENTRES TURNING with Paul Reeves
MUSHROOMS DECORATED with Paul Reeves
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT with Paul Reeves
OFF-CENTRE TURNING with Paul Reeves
OFF-SET BOWLS with Paul Reeves
PENCIL SHOOTER with Paul Reeves
PLATES & PLATTERS with Paul Reeves
PLYWOOD with Ed Walker
PODLETS with John Bolt
PUZZLES & TRICKS with Paul Reeves
SALT CELLAR & SPOON with Andy Ogilvie
SAUERACKER SHELL with Andy Ogilvie
SPHERE TURNING using CUP CHUCK with Paul Reeves
SPHERE TURNING using OCTAGON METHOD with Andy Ogilvie
SPINDLE & FACE PLATE TURNED with Paul Reeves
SPINDLE revision with Paul Reeves
STRAIGHT from the TOOL with Paul Reeves
STREPTOHEDRONS with Andy Ogilvie
TAZZA with Paul Reeves
TEXTURING with Paul Reeves
TEXTURING WORKSHOP with Phil Scoltock
THIN / PIERCED TURNING with Paul Reeves
THREAD CUTTING SCREW BOX & TAP with Paul Reeves
THREE POINT BOWL with Andy Ogilvie
THREE LEGGED STOOL with Paul Reeves
TOOTHPICK HOLDER with Paul Reeves
TOY CAR RACING with Andy Ogilvie
TREEN HAND-HELD MIRROR with Paul Reeves
TWO-PART STICK/LAMP + ADDED VALUE with Paul Reeves,
UNNATURAL NATURAL EDGE with Paul Reeves
WOODEN WHISTLE with Paul Reeves

Click subject above for report ▲

 July 2026  -  CLUB WORKSHOP
Bowl Saving primer with Paul Reeves
Thu 16th July 2026 at MWCC Club Night

 

 

 

Following requests from Members, Paul had been asked to highlight points to consider when cutting out the centre of a large blank in order to save a new blank rather than see it turned into shavings.
 

With the price of blanks steadily increasing with time, bowl saving seems an opportune choice. Unfortunately, the cost of bowl savers is increasing just as exorbitantly.

 

(click for close up view of these examples)


Point 1 - It is necessary for a large blank to have DEPTH available, not just for a deep bowl, but to allow for sufficiently thick walls that can be either roughed out or have its centre taken out with a corer.

Point 2 - A large blank will take a lot longer for the centre to dry out, during which time the outer walls could be rendered useless from worm attack whereas saving a GREEN blank will not only be more amenable with the cutting tool but also markedly reduce the drying time for all saved blanks. Dried wood cuts slow & noisy - Green wood cuts quick & neatly.

 Club Member, Rhob, had obtained something of a scarcity these days - a length of Elm trunk. This had been sawn in half down its pith before each half had been rounded roughly to a circle and one half had been bowl saved earlier for Rhob to turn a 15 " diameter bowl (HERE).  Previously, the starting blank had been drilled to take a screw chuck, and while supported at the other end with a live tail stock centre, its outside had been roughly shaped, a foot fashioned and a spigot turned for a secure re-mounting for the bowl saving procedure.
 If this spigot diameter is matched to the 'true circle' diameter of your jaws and of an obliging wood type, it is certainly possible (assuming you're confident enough) to turn 2 or 3mm spigot depth, which would be sufficient to safely hook out the centre because the entire jaws would be in contact rather than just 4 centres or 8 tips depending whether smaller or larger than true circle. The reduced spigot depth also leaves flexibility for remaining saved bowls.

Point 3 - Once remounted to the first spigot, you might choose to create a dovetail EXPANSION MOUNT (ideally matching the expanded 'true circle' diameter of the current jaws) in order to improve accuracy & time for turning the foot of the next saved bowl(s). Re-using a screw chuck hole often leads to a bit of play and consequently less secure.

 The current predominant Bowl Saver kits in the UK are 'Oneway Easy Core' and 'Woodcut'. There are also Kelton McNaughton Systems but not so readily available. The Oneway has a larger selection of knife sizes and is able to cut steeper sides for making narrow bowls. Paul was using his Woodcut Bowl Saver which is designed to cut out a hemisphere. His 20 year old model has 2 knives for cutting different radii (8" & 10") whereas modern Woodcut savers have a version with 3 knives.

Point 4 -  FLAT BOTTOM BOWL : Rhob's bowl had a 15" diameter which had its core bowl saved with a 10" knife. This was done by starting the cut to make approximately 12" diameter saved core - however, when the handle reached its stop, the knife had cut a 90º arc but had left the 'section being saved' still attached to the centre of the outer bowl. With normal cross grain blanks, gentle prizing with levers down the cut slot will rock & break this stub apart along its grain. NB: This technique won't work with end-grain bowl blanks.

 Tonight, Paul would produce two bowls blanks from a piece of Beech out of his wood store. As with Rhob's bowl above, it had been screw chuck mounted to turn a foot and spigot, then remounted using that spigot as shown in the photo below.
 The tool had first to be set up so that the 8" knife (previously checked if it needed sharpening) was at the correct height for this lathe. Using the adjustable bolt on the platform's threaded post resting in the tool banjo, the platform was adjusted up/down until the knife's cutting edge was precisely at headstock centre height.  The final check was where on the rails to position the banjo so that the knife would finish its cut to leave the desired thickness for the bowl's base.  Paul had a DIY tool but he could have held a ruler level while visually lining up the radius of the knife (4" in this case) between the desired base depth (say ¾") and the centre of the cutting arm's pivot while it was being adjusted along the rails. The tool banjo was locked tight and the tailstock fully engaged with the saver's adjustable morse taper, which helped prevent the platform from deflecting while the sharp edge is strong-armed into cutting.

(click for close up view)

 The fibre brush in Paul's hand was needed to sweep away swarf building up on the cutting arm in order to keep the slot clear - he advised against nylon brushes which are prone to heat damage created by the cutter.

Point 5 - LATHE SPEED shouldn't be so fast that the swarf cannot clear the gap although with weightier bowls, slightly faster speed allows an element of 'flywheel' inertia to help the load on the lathe's motor.

Point 6 - GRAIN DIRECTION of normal bowl blanks mean that the cutting edge is working across endgrain at the start of the cut, which it does as easy as a Parting Tool working a spindle. But as the cut progresses around the corner, the noise changes to a chatter and becomes louder as the edge starts cutting into endgrain twice every revolution.  When combined with the edge having to hang a long distance away from its rest, progress will be more difficult and will require more strength.

(click for close up view)

Point 7 - The UNUSED KNIFE on a Woodcut Saver is stowed upside down in its curved holding frame on the opposite side to the handle. This is essential so that it doesn't interfere with the blank or chuck as the handle is moved to full depth position. However, it is important that it's not left overhanging the platform or it might strike the piece as the handle is returned to its start position. It would do serious damage because being upside down, the cutting edge being at the bottom would strike the rim as it passed upwards and leave a groove just where you didn't want one.

 With the core rocked apart, the bowl in the jaws is in perfect position for a Bowl Gouge to give a smooth clean cut which can remove any pull out caused when the bowls had parted company. The same applies to the outside of the smaller blank which will be easily mounted, particularly if you had opted to create a dovetail expansion mount.

(photos by Andy Ogilvie & Rick Patrick)
 <to index>

June 2026  -  DEMO 2
From 3" Cube with Andy Ogilvie
Thu 18th June 2026 at MWCC Club Night 

 

 

The criteria for this competition is to start with a 3" cube of your choice of wood and create a piece with NO ADDED WOOD/RESIN.
The piece can be cut, segmented or glued into a different shape; part can be turned away or discarded; pieces can still be finished with decoration, oil or wax.

 

Below are some examples for your inspiration & some stored in our Archive :


(click for close up view)

Cube sliced into 6 squares as described in Multiple Centres Turning <HERE >

Various Streptohedrons <HERE>

Three Point Bowl <HERE >

Andy's first demonstration was
  Ball in a Cube
(top right hand corner in above examples)
which appears as intricate turning but is surprisingly easy.

 Using a prepared blank 3" cube of Beech, he established which faces were end-grain and marked some of the along-grain faces with a double ended arrow so he could instantly determine which way the grain was running upon picking up the cube. By knowing this, one will be aware of which tools shouldn't be used in specific mounting positions - for example, must NOT use a Skew if the cutting action would strike an end-grain face (because it won't cut owing to edge just sweeping grain aside) but CAN use a Skew perfectly when grain orientated like spindle wood, i.e. cutting across the end-grain.


 The cube was first sanded to flatten/clean off any irregularities & soften sharp edges. Abrasives needed to be held flat & firm - could use a Linisher, but Andy used a Velcro backing pad adapter that fitted his head stock.
 He then mounted his Cole Jaws with its original Button Grips replaced by bespoke wooden rectangular grips, which allowed more versatility than a tailored Jam Chuck. Note that the inner edges of wooden grips were carefully lined up exactly the same against the mounting holes for each jaw to ensure a centralised grip.

 

 The blank was a 75mm cube so using a carpenter's Scratch Marking Gauge set to 25mm, he marked the blank on all 6 faces, ending up reminiscent of a Rubik's Cube. He also highlighted these scratches with pencil to make them more visible later when lathe was turning.

 With the cube secured within the Cole Jaws and tailstock adding support, the aim now was to turn away the middle third to a cylinder approximately 5mm below the cubes faces. The tailstock will leave an indent mark but that will be turned away later, so not a concern.

 Eventually, the cube will be mounted in 3 different configurations; 2 of these will involve cutting into the end-grain faces, which will have a tendency to rip off wood as the tool traverses from its cut to where it's passing through air. For these mounts, it is best to use a narrow Parting Tool starting from the very centre to nibble down about 4mm while slowly enlarging the cut until it is wider than your next Parting Tool, which you then use to gradually widen the cut precisely to the pencilled scratch marks and eventually deeper to about 5mm.
 Once satisfied with the first cylinder, he measured the diameter with Callipers, halved that for its radius so he could use compasses to draw a matching arc on spare plastic/card/thick paper for cutting out as a template that would fit into the width of this first cut.
 Using a small Angled Skew Chisel, he gradually modified/fettled the cylinder to form an arc to match the template before sanding with a long strip of abrasive held in one's hands well clear of the piece. Andy had a crescent shaped wood moulding off-cut (about 20mm wide) which was particularly useful to support abrasives into tight corners.

 Having completed sanding through grits, it was time to remount the piece in an adjacent face. The tailstock will now need to support by either protruding through the newly made recess or, if that was too narrow for the point to reach the sphere surface, against a sacrificial off-cut to fill the space. It is notably helpful if the point does mark the sphere surface as that will help prevent any subsequent drill bit from skating over the surface upon starting to cut a hole.

 The process to turn a cylindrical recess above was repeated with the extra precaution to carefully turn away the cylinder's depth to the central high point of the previously turned spherical recess. Once reached, it was back to an Angled Skew to match the curve already there after the first cut recess without a need to resort to the card template.  This recess was sanded as above.

 The piece was now remounted in the last remaining dimension and the process repeated. One of these mounted positions will have been a spindle configuration (i.e. mounted between both end-grain faces) in which case, a Skew with its toe on the tool rest will leave the best tool finish for the upright cuts.

 Next, he planned to drill holes through the sphere at the 6 recess intersections. Each recess width had been 25mm so if a 25mm saw-toothed Forstner Bit was now used precisely centred on the recess intersections, it would not interfere with the recess walls.  As the sphere's radius had already been calculated, some tape was applied around the drill bit a fraction over this distance measured from the drill's point.
 With that Forstner Bit attached to a Jacobs Chuck held in the tailstock and an awl used to prepare the starting dimple for the point of the Bit, he mounted the piece again in the Cole Jaws. He first drilled up to the tape mark before withdrawing and sanded using a dowel with a slot down its end to hold the abrasive in position while dowel being moved in & out with his hand as lathe turned.
 The cube was remounted to the opposite side in order to complete the through hole and repeat sanding.

This drilling technique was repeated with the two remaining opposite pairs mounted in turn. The only thing left was a fair bit of fettling to get smooth surfaces before applying a finish of choice.

Andy's next demonstration was
  Pair of Square Bowls
(bottom left hand corner in 3" Cube examples above at start)
The description below is an adapted version of a technique used by Olivier Gomis which can be found on YouTube.

 

 As with the 'Ball in a Cube' demo above, the blank Cube was studied in order to identify which were the end-grain faces because Andy needed to ensure that his finished thin shallow bowls would NOT end up with its grain running from top to bottom with all the consequent inherent weakness of each one readily splitting apart. He subsequently marked the centres of these end-grains together with an opposite pair of along-grain faces.
 It was first mounted between centres of these latter along faces so that both end-grains would be among the four faces worked first.  This would ensure that the bowls would have their grain running from side to side.

 With a small Roughing Gouge, Andy turned the blank down to a cylinder close to 3". After reducing lathe speed, he progressively sanded through the grits using a firm flat pad to reduce the chance of ending up sanding off more from the along-grain surfaces than the end-grain ones. He adjusted his Callipers to the diameter of this sanded cylinder for the benefit of the next procedure.

 The piece was remounted using the end-grain centres and the small Roughing Gouge turned another cylinder to the same size as the Callipers resulting in the piece resembling a plumped-up square pillow.
Gauging straight diagonal lines over both 'plump bumps' of the square pillow produced 2 opposite centres for remounting. Fine adjusting was possible by checking the 4 remaining corners passing the same point of the toolrest when mounted precisely.  The drive centres will inevitably leave evidence marks, but would be removed/disguised when turning bowl bases later.


 Figure 1  The next process was to split down the centreline to leave 2 - 3mm high tenons for both halves to fit C Jaws plus an allowance for the width of your Gentleman's Saw or narrow Parting Tool. This was achieved by creating a cylinder 52mm diameter & 8 or 9mm wide.
 Be aware that with lathe turning, the 4 square corners of each bowl being formed by the gouge will be barely visible so it would be best practice NOT to try holding Callipers set to 52mm in one hand while controlling the Roughing Gouge with precision in the other. The safer option would be to stop the lathe before checking with Callipers rather than risk damaging the corners (and your fingers!).

 

 Figure 2   The piece was then sawn/parted off and one was remounted in C Jaws (using the freshly turned tenon) with the tailstock out of the way so that a Spindle Gouge could level base off parallel to the mounted surface producing a smooth flat diameter of about 30mm. 

 


 Figure 3   An Angled Skew created a mortise for his small Dovetail Jaws under expansion. He decorated as desired before sanding to a finished surface.

 

 

   Figure 4  When remounted in the Dovetail Jaws, a final skimming of top managed to remove any traces of mounting marks and to create bowl & bead detail.  Each bowl hollowing pass was preceded with a Parting Tool to form a vertical step for the gouge to secure its bevel at the start of the cut.  This avoided the gouge tip from skipping outwards and likely to scratch the square surface and also when cutting close to the raised rim, avoid the end-grain sections from buckling & breaking the rim away.

 Keep in mind the depth available - these 2 bowls started at 75mm; subtracting the initial cylinder width in fig 1 (9mm) & the base and expansion dovetail for each (2 x 4mm) & allowing for wall thickness (2 x say 7mm) =  each bowls' inside depth is about 26mm, which could be set on a depth gauge for checking after passes.  Once satisfied with depth, he softened the edges with his Skew and abrasives.

 The remaining sawn bowl was mounted and the above procedures repeated to match all dimensions.
 Andy chose to treat both to a coat of Lemon Oil.

 

 The July 2026 Competition was set to turn ANY PIECE(s) started from a single 3" blank CUBE without any additional wood/resin

 <Competition Results> 

(photos by Andy Ogilvie, Rick Patrick, Rob Randall & Rhob Williams)
 <to index>

 

April 2026  -  DEMO 1
Tazza with Paul Reeves
Thu 16th April 2026 at MWCC Club Night 

 

A Tazza is a receptacle comprising of a shallow bowl/plate top, supported by a stem & foot. They are typically highly decorated.

We've had previous demonstrations involving a combination of cross-grain & along-grain turned blanks to make a completed piece :
    Three Legged Stool    <HERE>
    Treen Hand-Held Mirror    <HERE>
    Two-Part Candlestick/Lamp    <HERE>

Tonight's piece is similar but with a combination of 3 blanks.
But which would be best to turn first?
    The TOP; the BASE or the STEM?

Paul recommended the Stem because it is easier to fine trim a mortise in the Top or Base while checking the fit against a finished Stem tenon than it would be by trying to get the tenon to fit the mortise. That would require dismounting the Stem to check the fit after every adjustment & having to remount to re-trim.

Paul had selected a 10" circular blank for the Top, 6½" circular for the Base & a similar length spindle blank for the Stem, all out of Hornbeam.
He wanted to arrange the 3 components to be in Golden Ratio to each other with the Top having the starting diameter, the length of the Stem that would end up visible and the Base having a diameter of the next smaller figure after that. 
Thus for Golden Ratio proportions, a Top diameter of slightly under 10" would have a visible Stem length of just over 6" as would the Base diameter.  Paul had his own Golden Ratio Calliper with which he could match the exact dimensions once he had settled upon his first blank.

  Stem
Having just calculated that the Stem needed to be about 6" long plus tenons that were less than the thickness of their circular blanks, the square spindle was mounted between centres and turned to a cylinder. This was then marked up for a tenon at one end, for about 6" of visible Stem (this will be the reference length for Golden Ratio Calliper measurements), for the remaining tenon length and the consequent parting off points.
Starting off at the tailstock end, he used a Parting Tool to create a tenon for the Top; its precise diameter didn't matter as long as the Stem had enough shoulder to seat onto its neighbour. This was repeated at the headstock end for the Base.
Paul's design incorporated a decorative bead at each end of the Stem. He pencilled a mark for the centre of each bead the same distance from each tenon seat. Using a sharp ⅜" Spindle Gouge, he turned the beads starting close to these centre marks. Although the lathe might be turning quickly, his technique was to move the gouge slowly while insuring it was rolling along the toolrest rather than rotating in the same position. If your bead ends up like a shark's tooth, the tool shank has spun on its spot!  The beads have easy access to form a smooth arc to vertical at its tenon shoulder but the other edge of the bead will need to form a 'birdsmouth' shape into the Stem. Paul then shaped the Stem thinner at the Base so the bottom birdsmouth was removed anyway. He finished by what he called 'tickling' with abrasives, meaning that it was gently handled so that the sanding didn't alter any curves. He fastidiously removed dust between grits using a brush and wiping his abrasives against the pile on a small piece of carpet. Once done, he parted off without needing to worry about a clean end cut as it would be hidden, but he did leave a slight chamfer at both ends to help guide the tenon into its mortise.
 After the Demo, he remounted & adjusted the slope of the Stem so that the diameter as it went into the Base was reduced about 3mm which brought it to the correct Golden Ratio figure to the diameter under the Top. This gave it a much more elegant appearance.

  Top
Having selected which surface would best suit the underside, Paul had a prepared MDF board with a centrally fixed Faceplate attachment for his chuck on one side and concentric rings drawn on the other face (to guide where outer edges should be when centred) and put spots of hot-glue on his dust-free blank with the chosen underside exposed for turning. After holding the blank firmly down and allowing time to cool, he mounted it on his chuck.
He used a 10mm Bowl Gouge with a short handle (as there would be a lot of work where a long handle would be hampered by the lathe's rails) to true off the face with some slow pull cuts before some push cuts to give a straight & level central area.
He used Divider Callipers (set to slightly less than the diameter of the appropriate tenon) to mark the face centre before using his Bowl Gouge to hollow out the mortise as one would a box. However, boxes tend to be endgrain whereas this grain is running parallel to the face, which a Box Cutter is not normally asked to do, but it should still cut reasonably cleanly when finishing the sides. Paul's technique was to present the Cutter into the base of the mortise so its heel made contact and then rocking until the side-cutting edge became parallel to the mortise sidewall and trimmed to size with regular stops to check against the Stem's tenon and to ensure the depth was enough for the shoulders to seat.
He created an upstand edge in the previously flattened centre and started shaping towards the edge with some pull cuts. Using his Spindle Gouge with its handle well down to ensure the cutting edge kept left of the gouge centreline, he shaped and smoothed the surface with push cuts and rounded the outer edge ready for working when the other face was turned. Any further cutting marks were feathered away with a Negative Rake Scraper or a straight edge Skew, which was all that Paul had to hand. Care is needed in handling these tools by not letting the tool handle overtake the tool's leading edge, which would otherwise dig into the wood, so not best for working on the inside of curves. The Skew was also used to clean cut all crevices for sharpness and ensure all shoulders would sit true.  The surface was tickled with abrasives as before.

(click for close up view)

As this face was destined to be glued to the faceplate for turning & decorating the upper surface, it needed to be sealed by ragging a thin layer of Sanding Sealer and allowing it to dry. Meanwhile, Paul had set his Divider Calliper to the width of upstand central flat foot before the piece was levered off the faceplate.  Having turned away or peeled off any remnants of glue from the faceplate, he used the set Divider Calliper to mark the faceplate in preparation of turning a shallow depression to receive the finished underside face so that the piece would readily sit centrally and a significant amount of surface areas would be in close contact for the hot glue to grip. Once he had visually checked that the back face appeared parallel to the faceplate while holding the piece in place, he brought the Tailstock up to maintain position and if necessary, used something between the plate & piece to wedge it steady, (shrewdly using some off-cut Glue stick). Then as his hand moved the faceplate around to about 5 or 6 times different positions, he dropped a spot of hot glue down between the gap at the top.

(click for close up view)

Once the glue had set, Paul continued to support the piece with the tailstock, although he removed the tail centre leaving a more stable & wider footprint of its quill (with a piece of safety cloth to allow slight movement when the lathe was switched on in order to compensate for any minor offset from centre after gluing).
He turned the residual glue off the face carefully as it can have a tendency to grab the gouge from one's hands. He trimmed the outer edge to form a bead shape at the correct diameter in Golden Ration to the Stem. This bead was treated with Sanding Sealer prior to Paul using his Decorating Elf with its Bud Cutter. With such a large diameter, lathe speed should be more moderate than when working central decoration, but it still seems  needing to hold the cut on longer than one first thinks. He brushed out the scurf and fine sanded to knock off the tops before rubbing in Gold Gilding Wax to cover it all over and just beyond the cuts to ensure they were filled.  You will invariably waste more than you use. He ragged off the worse using a clean rag with every pass across the cuts to avoid gilt being wiped out. Then ragged off with Danish Oil (or white spirits if you intend to finish with something different) followed by paper to remove the excess and repeated this process until just the cuts were gilded.

(click for close up view)

 

With the tailstock quill still supporting the piece and not forgetting the ⅜" mortise depth drilled in from the opposite face, Paul took up his Bowl Gouge and turned away some waste near the outer edge so that he could use push cuts from the start of the bead inwards to parallel the outside surface. He repeated these actions from rim towards the centre to ensure that there was enough wood to support the tool cut as the thin wall expanded. The tailstock was eventually removed for access to turn the centre away, which was left well supported by the shallow depression cut into the faceplate. Paul commented that if there was concern that the depth you were turning away might be too thin over or even run into the mortise underneath, one could always leave a button at the centre, suitably decorated to match the rest of the piece.  He pointed out that Tazzas are renown for their embellishments and tonight's example had left a lot of plain surfaces, so it was up to the turner how much or how little decoration is done.  As before, any remaining cutting marks can be feathered out with a Negative Rake Scraper or Straight Edge Skew to refine the flat surface. Hornbeam is unlikely to suffer from wood being ripped out when treated with these tools but some woods are less stable; in which case, Paul suggested to use the same choice of tools but hold them at 45º on the tool rest set at a height where the cut will be just below centre of the tool and its movement led by the handle. This will shear the wood rather than pull it out.
With the Top now finished, the safest way to remove without marking is to use a chisel to bear between the glue spots and the faceplate one at a time to prise it off.

  Base
This was turned slightly different to the Top in so far that the blank was glued to the faceplate so that the underside was worked first to be flat but with a decorated shape to disguise an expansion point, which would allow the upper surface to be mounted, shaped, mortise created as before, rim to be trimmed to the proscribed Golden Ratio diameter, decoration (if any) applied and finally sanded & finished as appropriate.

It only remained to assemble and carefully glue the 3 pieces together.

(click for close up view)

 

 

 The May 2026 Competition was set to turn a DECORATIVE TAZZA(s) of any size


 <Competition Results> 

(photos by Andy Ogilvie, Rick Patrick & Paul Reeves)
 <to index>

January 2026  -  DEMO 5
Musical Instruments with Paul Reeves   
Thu 15th January 2026 at MWCC Club Night 

 

 

 

The musical instrument that should be considered for this competition is of (or incorporates) a turned piece that can be bashed, blown or plucked.  Below are some examples to stimulate your imagination.

Examples :

(click for close up view)

(click for close up view)

 Hand-Held Slit Drum
The first consideration is choosing a 'sonorous' wood - most hard dense woods like Cherry are best although Paul has found an exception with Hornbeam, which despite being similarly easy to turn & shape, it can end up sounding very dead and dull.
Before the internal bore is drilled, it is best to drill the side holes & slit into a solid block rather than risking drilling after it had been bored and thus avoid splintering the resultant thin sidewall.
 Paul had prepared a cylinder from a square blank (of approximately 30cm long, 5cm square) turned between centres, had drawn a line down the side & had allowed for a chucking spigot plus length for an end-piece after hollowing. He had then marked 2 centre points on the line for 15mm drilled holes that would be equidistant from the proposed ends of the finished instrument.
 With the piece held/locked in place, Paul used an electric drill with a 15mm bit to drill down more than the intended thickness of the drum's wall. He used a small Angle Grinder (eg Proxxon) to create the 'slot'.  The spigot was then mounted in a chuck and a bore hollowed out using a Forstner Bit and Jacobs Chuck fitted into the Tail Stock. He chose a bit size about 15mm narrower than the cylinder diameter - the final thinning would be achieved at the end by turning away the outer surface to help improve a more mellow sound. Having the holes and slit drilled first also helped to self-clear the shavings during hollowing. Paul then mounted the piece that had been set aside to cover the exposed end and with a Parting tool turned a spigot to match before gluing both parts together.
 Once the glue had dried, the piece was mounted between centres in preparation for turning the wall thinner but leaving enough strength to avoid splitting. Paul used a Roughing Gouge with increased lathe speed while strictly keeping his hand movement in a straight line across the toolrest and avoiding excessive downward pressure in order to reduce the chance of the Gouge dipping into the side holes and leaving an uneven cut on either side of the Slit. When it comes to sanding any piece with holes/gaps, always use a block presented tangentially to the surface. After some touch-up fettling and sanding through sufficient grits, Paul used a Point Tool to decorate/highlight symmetrically around the ends. He then tidied both end faces with a Skew to a thin spigot before sawing off and chiselling to a smooth surface.  All that remained was to construct some sort of Mallet or Hammer to strike the Drum.

 Head Joint of a Recorder
Recorders are normally produced in 2 or 3 sections. The disadvantage of constructing it as a single section (eg as with a Tin-Whistle) is that an error in turning will require the entire instrument to be scrapped.  The Head Joint has the more complicated components (Mouth Piece, Fipple & Blade) and their construction is critical for a good sound.

 Some Recorder Sound Theory
A Fipple is the wooden plug forming a tapered windway which transforms the player's breath into a thin fast jet of air blown with steady precision onto the Blade.
The Blade splits the airflow to create sound from the resulting vortices oscillating alternatively above and below its bevelled edge (known as Vortex Shedding). This rapid periodic flipping of the air jet drives the air column inside the bore into vibration pulses that are matched to the resonant frequency of the air column inside the bore.
The longer that air column, the lower the pitch - thus the lowest note sounds with all the finger holes covered and the highest with all finger holes open.
The Timbre & Tone of the sound produced is determined by the sharpness of the Blade, the angle of its bevel and its distance from the Windway exit.
A Wind Instrument Musician aims to exploit 'Vortex Induced Vibrations' whereas an Architect of tall buildings aims to forestall them.

 Paul had a 5" length of 2x2 Boxwood blank in his wood store which is beautiful to turn but not so readily available to all. Although Box is commonly used for Recorders, Maple or other dense stable low-porous wood types are just as good. He had prepared it by turning to a cylinder, marked out the next 35-40mm for the mouthpiece and the end 25mm for the joiner to the Body section and lastly, bored a 15mm hole through the whole length and then a 20mm hole bored to about 20mm depth at the joiner end.  He had also prepared a purposed made Pin Chuck that had peg extensions that could friction drive 15mm and 20mm bores.

(click for close up view)


 With the proposed Mouthpiece end fixed onto the 15mm peg of his Pin Chuck, the piece was mounted between centres so that all subsequent turning would remain concentric to the bore.

 He use Parting Tool & Roughing Gouge to reduce the area between his mouthpiece & joiner marks to a diameter he estimated would leave a 5mm wall around the 15mm prepared bored hole.
 As Paul planned to use a narrow chisel to create the Blade, he first drew 2 parallel pencil marks slightly larger than the chisel's width (10mm in his case) starting from the Mouthpiece end to delineate the Blade and its 'Window'. He drilled 2 small holes straight down into the bored centre, close to the Mouthpiece end and keeping within the marks - this removed the bulk of the Window and revealed exactly where the bore wall started.  He used his chisel to create sharp cut sides to the Window and a flat bevel down to the Blade. He even resorted to a scalpel to clean up any ragged thin edges as it was critical that there were no fuzzy/hairy corners or edges to spoil the clarity of sound.

 Paul had made a Tin Whistle out of American Plane but its grain at the Blade's edge was prone to leave ragged hairy edges which slightly distorted blown notes. He eventually resolved the problem by stabilising the affected areas with superglue to aid leaving a cleaner cut edge. This solution was fine for a Whistle but probably not for a Recorder.
 He finally turned some decorative beads and curved shapes making use of the 19mm collar guide on the Pin Chuck to create a 2mm wall at the end of the Mouthpiece.

 Wood for Fipples can be made from dowel but the light hardwood variety that most Builders Merchants stock should be avoided. To ensure a good fit for his own drilled bore, Paul preferred to turn one on his lathe.
 Paul had prepared an oversized 15mm diameter cylinder of Box, long enough to be spigot-gripped in his small o'Donnell jaws and extend approximately 40mm to reach through to the Window plus another 20mm to act as a rod & handle for ease of removing out of a tight fit.

 First, he used a Skew to produce a clean flat pass over the end, then reduced diameter until close-fitted the drilled bore without getting stuck.  Next, he selected a wide chisel to cut a lengthways sliver starting at the width of the Window (10mm in this case) to form a ramp slightly down towards the 40mm Mouthpiece length, from where he turned a rod & handle at the head stock end of the Fipple.  Once he had checked that the Fipple was the right fit, he parted off at the handle.
 
 While holding the handle with the Fipple end inside the Mouthpiece just short of the Window and with the Windway in line with the Blade, Paul started test blows and at the same time, progressively twisted and adjusted depth to determine the position that produced the clearest note.  Once found, he ensured it didn't move until a few drops of ultra thin superglue were directed through the window and allowed to wick before going hard aided by tilting the whole Mouthpiece downwards.

 The extension was sawn off once the glue had set.  He shaped the underside of the Mouthpiece using a Drum Sander of suitable diameter - ideally about 2 to 2½ inches. With his index finger over the window, he was able to hold the underside accurately while keeping his hand out of harm's way.


  Body Joint
This Section of the Recorder was simpler to turn although there are perils of using long drills for hollowing - select blanks with straight grain and take the first drill bit cut at reduced lathe speed.
 A 15mm bored tube of matching wood blank was mounted between the Pin Chuck used above and a Tail Centre.  A tenon was turned to match the Head Joint's socket and was guided to the correct diameter by the 20mm peg on the Pin Chuck.  Leaving allowance for decorative beads and curved shapes to match the Head Joint, the remaining thickness was reduced to the corresponding diameter.

 Some Recorder Tonehole Theory
The Toneholes of a recorder are not normally positioned at regular intervals and in some, not even in a straight line, which then makes it easier to cover them with fingers tips.
Providing they are positioned at the same height in the bore, the identical pitch will be produced irrespective of where they are placed on its circumference. Middle and ring fingers for most people are more difficult to stretch compared to other fingers, so the vertical space between them is often minimized. If the position of a hole is deliberately moved farther down the bore, the pitch can only be preserved by making that hole bigger. Conversely, when the hole is repositioned higher, it must be created smaller.
For wooden recorders, pitch sounding slightly out can be re-tuned by finely adjusting the size of the hole with a knife.
Some Recorders are built with 3 sections where the 7th Tonehole (which has 2 smaller holes covered by the Right Hand Pinky finger) is moved onto a Foot Joint. The adaptation permits this Joint to be rotated as desired for the 7th Tonehole to conform with any players' length of fingers.
Toneholes with 2 tiny holes can allow the player to change the designed pitch by a semitone when only one of the two are covered.
 Useful Reference  <Yamaha Recorders>

With the above theory in mind, Paul recommended that you copy spacing from a working Recorder or from the Internet.  He also advocated drilling all holes with small drills at first and enlarge when sections assembled and being tested/tuned.
The decorative beads and curves were turned to match and the piece was sanded taking care not to distort the edges of Toneholes.

The February 2026 Competition was set to turn a MUSICAL INSTRUMENT that can be played on the night.
 <Competition Results> 

(photos by Allan Rae, Rick Patrick & Paul Reeves)
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