Toy's & Rolling Pin's

I found a toy I thought the grandchildren might like to play with its very simple to make it's called the "Clown Drop".  It even gets the oldies in.

 Thanks Steve The Scrollsaw Workshop worth it a short video on how it works The Clown Drop

A good friend had some Tassie timbers dropped off they were all turning blanks small and large for pens and rolling pins. A god selection consisting of Huon Pine. Tassie Blackwood, Tassie Myrtel. Alan doesn't turn or thing square into round (well not on a lathe anyway), so in passing them onto me he asked would I make a pair of Rolling pins for his favourite son in-law. Tassie Blackwood with  Huon Pine Handles and visa versa.

Knee Deep

We kept hearing this amazing Frog deep croaking sound and thought it was coming from our pond until I over filled a pot plant which had no drain hole. While sitting having a coffee at the table we noticed it come to the rim of the pot. On removing the plant which was in a plastic pot inside the stone one we found not one but two Frogs.

We released them o the pond some 8 feet away only for the larger to return to the pot within three days. Thats across the ground and back onto the out door table into the pot.

Cracker Bowls

A log obviously had been cut into blanks to form 3 separate bits, I had been given them. Rough turned and sat them down on the "To Do Later" pile. Months later I started to turn one, then the other, sat it on top of the first and saw what became this trio of bowls. The bottom one had the flaw I was going to fill it, decided it looked better this way.

The timber is unknown except for the Jarrah knob.Our daughter has claimed it as her's..

This one is Spalted Macadamia a segmented piece my first segmented work a 50mmx50mmx 300mm long cut into four giving nice size Cracker bowl.

Chuck & Face Ring

I had an old VW (Volkswagon)  Steering Boss I had kept hidden away it had been replaced as it was causing trouble. It has now been converted to a 1x10 jam chuck and a face ring for my Jet mini lathe. It can be adapted for use also as the mounting for a Longworth Chuck I have yet to make.

Mal's Boutique Timbers

Its good to see that Mal Ward from Boutique Timbers has his own Blog site now easier to find and point others in his direction. I have bought a small amount of timbers of Mal and his brother Greg, scented NSW Rosewood, a few small burls, Huon Pine. They seem to stock a fair range of large slabs also.




The first time I saw their timber selection was at The Sydney Timber and Woodworking Show 2005. The rain had given the timber a soaking but with it brilliant colours.

Mal frequents a number of shows large and small, Newcastle is another one and Kiama Wood Crafts Group's yearly weekend event .

I bought this Rosewood some time back yet still to do anything with it, it looks a bit of old fire wood till it was cut. A reasonable size small slab was broken down to these turning blanks and lengths. A small nut bowl for a friend made from some of it.

The recent handles for the wedding gift  also made from some of this Rosewood.

This last show at Kiama they had some stunning timbers, slabs,  planks, burls and blanks. I bought a nice piece of Huon Pine (not shown here).

A number of the members from OTGA Ornamental Turners and Blue Mountains Woodturners often buy from Mal as well.

Feathered Friends and slithering things

We called into see my Uncle Kevin at Lapstone in the Blue Mountains. While there I decided to take a few photo's of his beautiful birds. They were making quite a racket as I approached the cages I saw what I first thought to be a garden drip hose. To find it had a red belly and it was about 3 to 4 foot long a baby Red Belly Black snake  He was more afraid of Kevin than we were of him, they are not to be toyed with a bite can cause serious illness and a visit to hospital.

Some brilliant colours amongst the finches a variety of birds in an ideal bush setting.

3 Bags Full

Its nice to be given anything for free especially if you can use it. Thanks goes to a family relation Maree and John and friends of theirs who raise Aplaca's for the 3 bags of fibre.

One bale of white which I thought when going through the top layer would mostly end up in the bin but will become doggy beds, this was skirting and legs. Then as I went further down it became a situation of my bags for sorting 1 for doggy bed - 1 for spinning - 1 I called cloud 9 it is heavenly soft.

 The half bale is all coloured Alpaca and needs further sorting as there are more than 3 or 4 colours ranging from fawn to black.

This the smallest bag is yet untouched.
The bales have been a priority so they can  returned for the next shearing.

Hebridean Spinning Wheel restoration A Work In progress Part 1

Finaly a start on the 200+ year old spinning wheel (see story here ).

Being a member of the Ornamental Turners I approached one of the members David Liard for some expertise in turning threads to repair and re-make the tensioning knob. David took the job on without hesitation and informed me when he'd handed the completed job back that he had only just restored/repaired a similar wheel recently. The old knob seen on the left was broken just above where the thread finishes. David drilled both parts and inserted a dowel and glued it together. The new one was made as the threaded section of the old one is so worn it would not have worked in adjusting the wheel tension.

I set about copying a new castle ( the old part seen below) for the maiden carrier using English Oak as David has done also, to keep the wheel as original as possible I will also repair the broken parts.

Matching the colour and years of use ( think they prefer patina) was to be less difficult than I first envisaged the process took a while but it slowly came about to a match. Its difficult to reproduce 200 years of dirt and grime Lanolin from grease wool.

The Yoke which support the Castle was split it has been soaked in a soapy water solution for about  1hour and a large hose clamp fitted to try bring it back as close as possible to be able to glue and pin it together.

A Joint Wedding Present

A good family friend, our youngest son's best man was to be married, we wanted to give Jack and Hope something we had both made.

Sue set the loom up and produced a Table Setting 4 place mats and a table runner.
Warp and weft are of natural coloured linen set up in a colour and weave threading but using a thick and thin combination instead of contrasting colours to give a textured fabric. The patterning is subtle but also intriguing. The weaving was enjoyable and I would like to do a little more of this pattern and even try out some other colour and weave patterns though not in linen.

I turned NSW scented Rosewood handles for some untensiles, Salad servers, Bread knife, Cheese knife and a Cheese combo knife.