Preparing this years timber

This winter’s rough turning is well underway and I’ve loads of beautiful wood to work with! Here you can see the yew and ash blanks I’ve been processing, with most being extra large - in fact I’ll be hiring a hydraulic hoist for the remaining ones, which are over two feet across!

This natural edge section came from the yew tree, which was featured in my August blog post. There were about 35 of these blanks in total, most measuring about 16 - 18 inches in diameter…

A VB36 bayonet faceplate firmly screwed in place. These are designed for extra weight and can be quickly mounted to the lathe…

The top image shows the completed blank, which will take about 18 months to dry. The shapes and colours are truly incredible and I’m certainly looking forward to finishing it! Next on my list is an assortment of ash, all sourced from a local tree. Again, these are quite large, at around 20 inches across and will most likely be destined for lampshades…

Turning the outside is fairly quick, when the timber is green...

Mounted on the chuck, ready for hollowing out...

Keep an eye on my blog for updates, as I've so much more to do - photo's will hopefully be posted soon!