Woodworker's Journal winter-2009, страница 50

Turned Ornaments

Spindle ornaments are quick,

easy and fun to make. ornaments are also excellent projects for teaching youngsters how to turn.

The initial stage of creating spindle ornaments is to turn a cylinder from a small length of wood, held between centers of your lathe. The author uses a safety center in her lathe, to avoid the drive spurs.

buying the small-scale turning tools. Young hands will have an easier time controlling the smaller tools, and the results will be more positive. Make sure their (and your!) tools are shaip — it makes turning much safer.

Teaching Children to Turn Ornaments

Each child is different, so consider not only the age of the child, but also his or her temperament. My youngest son, Dan, was able

to turn when he was five years old, but only for about 20 minutes. When I offered a class in making ornaments for parent/child teams, I asked that each child be at least eight years old. One 10-year-old girl stayed for two 40-minute sessions and would have stayed longer! Use your judgment.

Ixt your child make his or her own designs. Once you show them the basics and determine that they are operating safely,

by betty scarpino

While it's tempting to take advantage of random scraps of wood for these ornaments, I find that lighter-colored woods show up well on the dark backdrop of a green tree. Additionally, if you are going to color them, light wood grain takes color better than dark grain.

Soft maple tends to remain a lighter color than hard maple, so use soft maple if that's available. Dogwood and holly are excellent, and the turning qualities of these two types of wood are superb. I like to use dogwood and holly for ornaments that I leave natural color. Ash and white oak are light enough as well, and both are suitable for spindle turning, especially ash.

Use Small-scale Tools

A set of pen-turning tools works great for making ornaments, and these are available in many woodworking stores as well as turning supplies catalogs. A small spindle gouge and skew chisel are the only new tools required. If you are planning to teach a youngster how to turn, I strongly suggest

50 Turned Ornaments