Birdhouse Ornaments

Last November I started making birdhouse ornaments for the Christmas craft show trade. The process is enjoyable and creative. Every ornament is unique and there is enormous variation possible. I also get to use all my small pieces of fancy wood that has been sitting around the shop for years. (The wood must be dry to make a good product)

With these I have turned and carved a cross on the roof peak and burned and coloured decorative windows on the side

Split Turnings ENHANCE Furniture

THE cabinet that Fred built. Notice the turnings. This cabinet is in three pieces. The turnings have been placed at the ends and the junctions of the pieces. They provide "pop" to the overall look of the cabinet. Without them the cabinet looks relatively "flat".

Here is the detail of the centre split turning. Actually two turnings as the top piece sits out further from the cabinet while the lower turning sits between the "frame" pieces and is itself framed. A lengthy project but fun to play with various designs before deciding on the final look and then being challenged to create duplicates.

Some Neat Stuff

Beaver made pond near Rock Lake, Ontario. Such beauty in late summer.

Painted kids in summer.

Cedar woods near Pickering. Magical.

Nelson turning at Lyndhurst Fair

Bed too short?

I needed to turn a tenon on some 45 inch long legs but my lathe is only 36 inches long!
So I clamped a board to the top and Voila! I have a longer bed. This worked fine for the tenon only but if some serious turning had to be done one would have to use a much beefier board.

Sheepdog Trials 2011

Kingston Woodturners is back at the Kingston Sheepdog trials. We had a good Saturday with quite a bit of interest. Here Percy is wowing the audience.

Another view.

Here I am making tops which have been great sellers at the fair. Since they are relatively quick to demonstrate they can be sold for a few bucks only and the viewers get to take home what they watched being made.

Process starting

Here are some of the blanks after bandsawing into circles. I drape wet rages over them to keep them damp and stop checking.


Here is the first of many blanks mounted and ready to rough turn into a bowl blank. Mounted between centers with a drive mounted in a Oneway chuck on the drive end.
I tried to core some of the curly maple but my motor is not strong enough. The straight grain wood of the same specie works fine but the curly wood is just too hard and tough and continually binds or rips the wood out of the chuck jaws. (I have large jaws for this purpose but still too much strain.)

First time turning

Grand daughter Victoria and her audience brother. Victoria is turning her second vase from butternut, the results are below. Good work Victoria.


I am still looking for the test tube inserts which I know I have but which have been misplaced.

Wood collecting

This huge old sugar maple tree had a big branch blown off in one of the spring wind storms. The owner of the tree contacted Herb and let him know and it turned out to have some very highly figured curly grain. Trees produce curly grain to reinforce vulnerable spots and this branch was huge which created a large area of curly hard maple wood.

Yes, those saws are too small. And one will not start! On top of that my saw chain was too far gone to sharpen any more so we had to return to pick up the last pieces. Still enough to keep me busy for quite a long time!