Woodworking & Woodturning

Working with Wood

I have always been marginally interested in working with wood. Through my mid-elementary school years I told people I wanted to be a carpenter when I grew up. (About 5th grade I decided I would rather become an astronomer). I do not remember what kinds of wood projects I worked on in those early years. I never had much of a selection of tools, so I used what was available and improvised. I did not get around to using a lathe until early 2021, just before my 68th birthday.

My first major wood project I can remember was this mahogany coffee table as a present for my mother-in-law in 1975. She needed an extra long table for her long couch. When she needed to downsize, she gifted it back to us. It needs to be refinished.

I made baby crib, a rocking horse, and a market stand for our kids and their friends in Germany.

I also remember making a dog houses and chicken houses :) Recently:

Taylor's Ham

For my wife Cathy, used to press curved seams, darts, and garment contours without flattening them.

First Lathe Project: Cherry Wood Bowl

My friend Marlin gave me an old English-made lathe that needed some repairs (shown above in the header photos). I built the cabinet for it. After experimenting with how a lathe works, I decided I needed to take a turning class. A lathe instructor lived nearby who taught a "Bowl Turning With Carbide Tools" workshop at Rockler Woodworking and Hardware in Seattle. I took that workshop on January 11, 2021. I consider this the "official" date that I started to learn how to turn.

Our workshop project was turning a blank round into a cherry wood bowl. Here is the one I turned:

Honeydippers

Made from a branch of holly wood:

Others:

Egg Cups

Stackable Bowls: A Christmas present for our grandson Rainer

An "ice cream cone" (left) and a baby rattle (upper right)

An Decorative Olive Wood Trumpet Mouthpiece

Alphorn Mouthpieces

ALMOST NONE of these mouthpieces were useful! Learning various turning and cup hollowing techniques was useful. The shanks of these mouthpieces have the wrong taper shape and dimensions to fit a standard alphorn mouthpiece adapter. So sad :( — but a lesson well learned :)

I was able to modify a few of the shanks to fit an alphorn, but that shortened them, which negatively impacted the tuning (shorter = sharper tuning).

New Lathe: 2025

I gave my old lathe back to my friend (to his daughter actually), then bought this new one and mounted it on a frame with casters:

This became an easier tool for making alphorn mouthpieces, tuning tubes for the alphorn, and my newest project: Scandinavian lurs.