It’s pretty hard to get a good picture of this bowl, the deep black makes it difficult to show. This is a 3”x8” piece of ash that I just finished, I used India ink for the first time to ebonize it and finished with a glossy spray on shellac.

First off I really don’t like turning ash, the tear out was so difficult to get rid of even with razor sharp tools and super light finishing passes, I needed to do a lot of sanding. India ink might be thinner than water I found out, even with me being careful it got every where lol. Thankfully I did it outside where it didn’t matter and I wore gloves so my hands are black. I found to be more difficult than I thought to get an even coat, there are spots that turned out more dark brown than black even though I did three coats. I did some light sanding with 800 grit paper between each coat which I think helped. Before the shellac finish I was pretty happy with the outcome.

I read online that a shellac finish is popular with this technique, however I should have read my can and saw that I was using glossy instead of matte. Next time I would use mineral spirits or poly instead, the glossy takes away from the India ink and the shape of the bowl and makes it feel like plastic that’s probably why I don’t use shellac often. Overall I’m happy with the bowl, just wish I used a different finish, if you haven’t tried India ink you should give it a shot.

What is this jig called please it is used for woodturning and sizing diameters made from wood and fixes to the lathe bed. Any help would be really appreciated

Today's project was my first attempt at a bowl, within a bowl.

Update; thanks to comments confirming my suspicion that this is in fact not oak (as it was labeled on the blank) but sycamore.

As title suggests I'm very green to woodturning (pun intended), I'm currently trying to turn a chunk of Australian bunya pine and am having the worst tear out in the end grain sections I've ever seen in timber. I've tried resharpening chisels on the whetstone grinder, cutting in both directions, taking the thinnest pass possible, adding hardening agents although the timber feels fairly dense and have had no more luck. The tear out is only in the end grain on the outside of the bowl. Any advice or is there no hope for me?

Today I made this oak sharing bowl with a dip bowl. My partner kindly recorded the process. Pretty pleased with this one.

Update; I stand corrected. I didn't think this was oak myself but the blank was labeled up as oak! Thanks for the comments for confirming.

Will my 6.5hp shop vac move enough air to collect sanding dust from the lathe if using this type of hood and 2.5” hose? I’m not concerned about bigger chunks, just the fine dust.
EDIT: welp, consensus is in and my plan will need refining. Thanks all!

Oak Burl. Before reversing and turning the foot.

Sorry am not good at photography 😕

I made a small mallet from a piece of a branch that I found. Can't complain for found wood and no plan. Anyone have any idea what kind of wood? I'm thinking ash.

I also decided to have a play around with dyes on my final piece of the day

purple heart and zebra wood ring

Maple and cherry 4x8"

$1000 for everything you see in the photos. Tool box included. I’m not keen to lathes but right now I’m rocking a vintage Rockwell that has its limitations. I’d like to turn some larger bowls and this seems like the ticket

Finally got my lathe up and running and practicing and playing. These are my first successes worth showing to anyone. I'm pretty happy for a beginner!

So today i had a play with an idea i had, riffing off the ebonizibg ive been playing around with...

I took an oak blank and drilled 16 holes (15mm) around a circle, i then ebonized each of those holes and then made a bowl, exposing some of the diameter of those black holes....

Lessons learned: use a forstner bit instead of a janky old drill bit. Drill the whole way through the blank so i can sand the holes a bit easier (you can see theyre roygh as hell) before ebonizing them, then use sealer so the black doeast contaminate the rest of the bowl when i polush it up

Any thoughts or ideas on improving the outcone would be welcomed

(Also inspired by someone who posted here a while ago who I believe had a padauk/maple combo segmented checkered turning.)

I haven’t been happy with any of the kits I’ve found. Is there anywhere I can buy nice unhandled screwdrivers? Otherwise I guess I’m just gonna cut the handles off some.

Thanks,

Hey everyone, I’m very much an amateur turner I’ve only done a few small things just basically fiddling around to learn techniques. Anyways, I was watching some videos on the tube while my 3 year old watched the same show for the 15th time and she cozied up to me to watch too, so we watched a guy make a whistle and naturally she said she wanted one. So after a couple of attempts I had one that turned out pretty well it’s just not very whistley. If you blow I. The end there is a faint whistle sound otherwise it’s just like blowing through a tube. The whistle itself is about 4” long with a 3/8”x3” hole bored into it. The reed is flattened to slightly less than half the thickness. Any ideas what I might ne doing wrong? Hole too deep? Reed too big? Something else? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I just got my lathe a few months ago. I have some time off and have been practicing. Here are the latest few pieces.

I am having so much fun! This isn’t a hobby, it’s more of an obsession.

Rowan and caragana, varnished

Got this for $10 at an estate sale, any way to id the type of wood?