If you saw my 2009 page, you see that I said I would try to continue with 2010 and keep it up to date during the year. So, it is now the 29th of April, 2010, the 2009 page is done and this page contains the first few turnings of 2010. Therefore, all those kind people that have written me, "Herm, have you stopped turning?" can now rest. I am, unfortunately, as hooked as always on woodturning.

I will try to maintain the page throughout the year, so come back often to check it out.

Before you start on this page, one of the first things I did in 2010 was fix a bassoon, an orchestra instrument often referred to as a "bed-post".

I thank you for visiting, and please let me know you were here. I love hearing from people who visit the site. I might even write you back.

			People are always asking for natural edge bowls, and the more I make the less I like to make them. After a while, they just get boring. I have decided, however, that I am going to look at other ways to do natural edge bowls in 2010, and the first example of my experiment follows in the next frame. I am putting these two in this frame, both made from the same box elder log, to show what happens to the design when you add a foot. I'm not sure which I like better, although I think I lean toward the upper one without a foot. These are both about 11" long and 4" tall. The finish, as it is with most of my box elder pieces, water borne urethane to protect the light color of the wood.

This bowl is poplar, and the pith, or center of the log, runs right through the center of it. This is a difficult way to turn wood, since the pith of a log is the first to crack and check. Also, as a bowl dries, the pith tends to push out and form ugly lumps on the side of the bowl. If a woodturner knows what will happen and designs the bowl to warp and twist, that's fine, but in most cases, I want the bowl to stay round. However, poplar is one of the more lenient woods when it comes to cracking and shape-shifting, and the pith does form a nice feature in the bowl. This wood came from a crotch where some branches came off the tree and it seemed logical to leave the natural scalloped edge. Since poplar bark is very thin, I removed it and used a burner to scorch the edge. The interior is painted flat black and the exterior finished with water based urethane. The bowl is about 9" by 9".

			The piece on top is an ash vase with the sapwood at the top of the piece. I love turning ash. We have lots of it here in Manitoba, and if you can find a large piece with a nice thick sapwood (wood just under the bark) layer, there are some nice things you can do with it. Since this vase is about 10" tall, and the center of the tree is below the bottom of the piece, you can calculate that the tree was at least 24" or so in diameter. The bowl has tung oil on it and is buffed. The lower piece is a little box (4" tall overall and 2½" in diameter) and is made of mahogany. I thought I would make this an egg shape, with no base on the box, and place it, loose, in a little carved egg-cup stand. The stand is of the same wood with a dark stain on it before applying danish oil.

This funny little piece was done as a challenge for our woodturning club. The challenge was to turn some kind of thin finial or spindle, so I decided to make a very long stem and save it for some future use. I then saw a little unfinished goblet top on the workbench and thought, "hey, that will work on top of this long spindle! All I need to do is make a base." After I made the base and perched the little cup on top of it, I thought it looked strange, so I dyed the maple base black. It matched the dark grain of the buckeye, and I liked it. The piece is about 16" tall overall, and the goblet is only about 3½" in diameter.

I can't believe the response people have had to this peppermill. I thought I'd give this a shot when I spotted a piece of paper birch in my woodpile and it gave me an idea. After all, for an outdoor barbeque or a camper or cabin, this might be quite the conversation piece. The mill is 12" tall, and judging from the response, I'm going to make some more of them. They are certainly easy enough and quick enough to make, and there are lots of interesting fence posts that could be used.

JUST WAITING

JUST WAITING

			JUST WAITING

			JUST WAITING

			JUST WAITING P>

JUST WAITING

			JUST WAITING

JUST WAITING

JUST WAITING P>

JUST WAITING

JUST WAITING

JUST WAITING

			JUST WAITING

JUST WAITING P>