My first turned brush

Hey gents. Tried my first brush handle turning with my new Christmas lathe.With my son working in a lumber yard, he's bringing some odd off cuts home for me to practice on.This hunk of walnut, I believe, was apt to tear out during the turning but came out quite nice considering it was cut "into the rings". It will be the worst brush I ever make, I hope, hehe. Being the first and all.
Tried some UHMW along the bottom for contrast and practice with multiple materials. Sits atop what's left from the small block I started with.
Cheers gents.

That's a really nice brush for a first one,,, you did real good,,,:tu

UHMW??? Ultra High Molecular weight polyethylene???

Looks great Mike. Gotta love when Walnut wood is free!!!

Thanks gents. And yup, that's the stuff Andrew. It's a slide table material we use in the dairy biz so I had a slab of it lying about. Hard to polish up once turned as its so smooth to begin with but I like the slightly gritty grip on the base ring I ended up with. Was so scary trying to turn the rings as tool catch was a problem with my novice technique and so so hand grip. But it will get easier with more turnings,.and with free chunks of wood like this, my practice pieces can turn out ok of they don't blow up along the way.
Tried to make a shallow maple bowl for the wife tonight after dinner as well so all of these different pieces equal experience. Some will end up kindling experience, but what the heck.Attachment 188903
I have some really nice slabs I don't want to touch before I know what I'm doing on this thing.
Decided to leave my old lathe set up for a while too. If we get a few guys together like we talked about, could have a right hands on brush turning session in January..
Cheers.

The Brush and the bowl turned out great. Wish I could turn bowls, but am lacking a plate. Hopefully I can remedy that this year

The brush looks very nice with that contrasting bottom.

Nice work!

Wonderful work for a first go at it.

That turned out GREAT!
Super nice on the plate also.

I being a novice turner also found that tool height causes most of my catches.
Have to have the right height that your cutting or else it tends to catch.

Something to think about at least.. :thinking:

I am sure someone will come along and correct me if I am wrong...but I don't think I am.. :rofl2:

Fantastic, greatwork.Tool height on any lathe (cutting edge) should be about 5 Degs. above center.