Ryedale Woodturners

Sue Harker

Thursday 5 September 2019

Snainton Village Hall

Sue has been a regular demonstrator for our club over the years, as well as a former member and secretary. She chose to do a candlistick with fins tonight, with an inner shape revealed by forming the fins. Sue turned a similar project at a Saturday Snainton Woodworking Supplies demonstration day back in May 2018. A few refinements have taken place since then, and she is still working on different approaches and minor details.

Candlestick

Sue's subject for the evening was a candle stick, with the stem cut through in fins to reveal an inner shape. She chose a piece of olive ash for this project, which is well suited due to the tight grain which minimises tearout, and of course the attractive dark markings typical of the centre of the ash trunk.

The blank was turned to round, a chucking point put on one end and sized at the other to form the candle holder. This was drilled with a Forstner bit that matched the size of the metal insert to be used. .

.A conical stem was turned, then marked out with bands, 6 mm for the fins, 9 mm for the gaps. Rather than measuring, she had made a stick with these measurements marked off. She used a computer printout to get these sizes on to this stick.

The gaps were then turned away with a beading parting tool, ground with a slight skew at the end which allows the desired curve to be shaped, rather than a stepped appearance. A diamond parting tool and a fluted parting tool were also employed later to refine these slots.

By half time Sue had all the gaps turned away, revealing the curved inner shape she had in her mind's eye.