Write up: Holm Miehlbradt,
Club Meeting: 24 March 2021

The evening was very well attended with almost no empty seat left.

Terry started out by recalling a compulsory shopping trip with Bruce (those in attendance will remember the details…). This lead them to some wooden acorns which in addition to being small boxes also were spinning tops.

The subject of the demo, matching our term project, was set: making such an acorn and then more…

The wooden acorn can probably be turned by a turner of any level of experience, however, Terry’s skills made it look deceptively easy!

The process is quite straight forward: Turn the blank (about 130x40x40 mm) round and create a spigot on each end. Part in half to make 2 acorns.
Mount one half in a chuck and start turning the bottom part with the recess for the lid towards the tailstock. To hollow out, drill a hole to the required depth. Once outside, inside and recess for the lid are completed, part off. Create a jam chuck with the remaining blank and remount the acorn to finish the bottom, including sanding, sealing and application of finish of choice.

The jam chuck becomes the bottom of the lid. It is turned similarly to the bottom part of the acorn. Attention needs to be paid to finish the wider part of the lid before turning the stem thin. Terry’s texturing tool is used to create an acorn like texture on the lid.

Terry went on to show how to make a similar acorn out of deer antler with a pewter top. This makes a very attractive pendant. An alternative version is to use ebony again with a pewter lid.

Finally, Terry showed how to use his texturing tool to produce different texturing effects.

Thanks Terry for a demo full of ideas and advice.