I love having a lathe

[cannonfodder]

Boy I love having a lathe (and other wood working tools). I was bringing in some wood for the fire and picked up a hunk of cherry I had cut earlier this year. This is what you would call a piece of crotch wood. That is the place that two limbs branch out at an angle verses the usual 90 degree trunk and limb orientation, I will leave it to you to decide how the wood gets that name. At any rate, I had just turned some brush handles and got to thinking that hunk of cherry would make a nice handle. The hunk is not the one I cut but is an example of 'crotch wood'.

So I opened up the guide on the band saw and quarter sawed that piece of wood into a couple of wood blocks. I chucked it into the lathe, made a pile of shavings and have a handle for a 28mm. I gave it a quick dip in Danish oil to bring the grain out for the photo but it will get much deeper and richer after a two day stabilizing soak. Hopefully it will not crack. That is the problem with green wood, there is so much moisture still in the wood that it tends to warp and crack as the wood dry’s.

Nothing like making something out of a hunk of firewood.