Report: 23 October 2024
Report by:  Kieran FitzGerald

The theme this term is Sea and Sky. I specifically asked Terry if he could demonstrate making one of his winged pieces. Without hesitation he replied “Ok, I’ll do a flying vessel”. Come the night for his demo, and Terry exhibited at least six of the pieces that he had previously made. “I call these my midas pieces,” he said, “because they’re going to make me rich.” Uh uh! Unfortunately that expectation has not been realised. Which is a bit weird, because the pieces are exquisite. Ranging in size from approx 140mm to about 400mm, each one is a delicate combination of beautiful form and detail, with the overriding feature being the lovely thin arch of the wings, which frame a complementary shaped lidded box and finial. Some are embellished with leaf carvings, paint and gold leaf, another features two carefully carved piwakawaka (fantails).

As he showed us how he makes the pieces, Terry explained in detail the entire process and gave us countless tips to boost our own skills. Indeed, the rich commentary and the advanced tool skills made this one of the most absorbing demonstrations I have seen. I will try and give a synopsis of the demo, but Terry will have to forgive me if I omit or err in some of the steps.

The work begins with a brick shaped piece of wood which is 150mm long, and I’m guessing about 90 x 90 square. The whole thing is made from one piece of wood. The edges need to be dead square, and parallel. You need to choose a close grained timber which is well and truly dry. The piece Terry is using tonight is kiln dryed kwila, but in the past he has used sapele, London plain, rimu, Queen ebony (Soloman Islands ebony) and black maire. Design is important. The wings need to have a continuous curve and even thickness. The wood is held in the lathe with the length perpendicular to the bedway. Mark centres very carefully because even a mm out will cause the tips of the wings to be uneven. The head stock and tailstock must be perfectly aligned. The end grain will run up and down. Initially the wood is held on a screw chuck. If you mark the position for the screw hole with a phillips screwdriver, the drill will centre perfectly on the dent. With a felt pen, mark out the curve of the wings.

Chip out on the wings can be an issue, and one tip Terry gave was to glue wastewood on the sides. However for the demo he did not do this. His weapon of choice was a 55° fingernail grind bowl gouge. Terry explained that he wanted the gouge to engage the cut at a point where the wood transitioned from coming down off its top arc to beginning to go round on its descent. The first cuts will begin to form the bottom of the box at the centre, and the outwards curve of the underside of the wings. Remember that the orientation of the wood is the same as turning a bowl. Draw cuts towards the tips, and push cuts from the tips inwards to the centre. The best advice here is to listen to the chisel. Position the chisel on the bevel and raise the handle to begin the cut. Feel the cut at the point where the direction of the cut changes. Continue to shape the bottom of the box and the underside of the wings. Make a spigot on the bottom of the box for when you turn the piece around on the chuck. As the tips of the wings get thinner you may strengthen them with superglue. Once satisfied with the underneath side of the box and wings, Terry used a threaded reversing live centre in the tailstock to grip the tenon before flipping it round to be held in the headstock. With a black felt tip pen he marked the desired thickness around perimeter of the wings. The next operation was a true Terryism. He hot glued four struts between the box and the tips of the wings to provide support to the tips. Terry said without them, centrifugal force could cause the tips to flex by up to 5mm. It is necessary to keep the lathe speed up because of the wood/air factor.

With the wings strengthened, Terry began to shape the top of the wings. In this orientation, the cut starts just on the drop off – the tool rest is about 20mm below centre. As for a bowl, cut from the outside to the inside. Leave a central core for the top of the box and the lid. At this stage the tailstock is still up. Terry explained that practice and experience will tell you which cuts leave the best finish. He uses a combination of push and draw cuts, noting that the tailstock inhibited some cuts. Observe carefully which cuts cause the least tear out and chip out on the edges. Superglue on the edges may help to eliminate chip out. The box needs to have a rebate cut for the lid, and to be hollowed out. The portion of the box that is above the wings is carefully shaped to maintain a flowing curve from the portion under the wings. Terry used Vernier calipers to measure this.

Once happy with the curve and thickness of the wings, and the box is shaped, the next step is to make the lid. For the demo. Terry had a separate piece of wood (cut from the same block), so he turned away the unused wood from his blank. However to get a perfect grain alignment he would use a saw to cut off the lid portion from his initial piece. The winged piece is turned around and remounted to turn away the spigot and do final shaping of the box. Terry described a number of ways which the wood could be held securely to do this. The use of cardboard templates assisted with maintaining the box’s finished shape and thickness. A further step is to make a finial – Terry achieves perfect vertical alignment by turning finials as part of the lid.

Terry talked about and showed us examples of pieces where there are variations to the design – upturned wings may be left on, or can be carved into forms such as the piwakawaka. The design possibilities are many. The main thrust of this demo as far as I was concerned was to watch the cutting techniques for making those beautifully formed, delicate wings, and this Terry was successful with. The true test will be in the doing – can we achieve this ourselves? I’d say, yes, but expect to get better with practice. Thanks Terry. Loved it.