Sniffie

Hardekool. Leadwood grinders.

Matching set of Kiaat salt and pepper grinders I turned sometime last year. Btw I have no idea why the uploader keeps turning my photos of the grinders on its side. ????

Thanks Myles. Thought for a moment I was being completely stupid for not understanding this one. Not keen anyway to buy a bike from CL. I am sure I will get more than R5k discount from my lbs on most brands of mtb’s anyway.

Do I understand this correctly, that if and when, bike booster is launched later this year the maximum cash back one will qualify for is R5000.00 off the price of a new bike purchased from Cyclelab? Paid back over 36 months, this amount to R138.89 per month. Hardly worth the effort!? But wait there's more: You get a free Team Vitality cycling membership for an a activation fee of R800.00. If I am not mistaken R800.00 is excactly what the vitality cycling membership costs anyway.

Hopefully they work OK. Not prepared to shell out 1500 to 2000 bucks for a Robert Sorby. My Lathe is not even worth that much! I spended about an hour on each grinding out the flute and bevel, carefull not to overheat the steel. Will give some feedback once I started using them.

Thought I should post some of my home made lathe tools to defuse the Friday free for all! From the left, this was supposed to be the mother of all round nose scrapers, 22 mm thick by 100 mm wide leaf spring from a lorry cut in half with acetylene torch. Something went wrong with my heat treatment and annealing and the point snapped off after 5 mins of use. Scary! Next two scrapers made from Radex about 15 mm x 25 mm. Then some chisels and scrapers from old files. Next is a bedan made from square key steel, and then 2 bowl gouges, still to get handles, made from an old gorilla type steering wheel lock. At the bottom some bead cutting as well as cove cutting scrapers made from anything like an old 6 mm chisel, old files, and old screwdrivers.

No, only the latex between the sapwood and bark of freshly cut timber is poisonous.My mom used to have a mortar and pestle made from Tamboti, which she regularly used. We are all still going strong. In fact I think my sister sill uses it today.

No, I used a new crushgrind ceramic mechanism. They have a 25 year warranty.http://www.crushgrind.com

Just finished 2 pepper grinders. The first is Tamboti, and the red and yellow is the left overs of the Padauk and Yellow Wood.

Managed to complete the cutting board on Saturday. Man it was a struggle to glue the Padauk and Sand Yellow wood! Some pieces were glued 3 times, ended up using gorilla glue on some of them. Decided to put a border of Meranti around to hold everything stable. The smaller board on the right is Sand Yellow Wood and Rhodesian Teak. The RT plank had quite a lot of sapwood, that is why it is mostly pink.

Thanks Bergman and DJR! I think you got me on the right track. Have to agree it is most probably Padauk. The open endgrain, and difficult to plane interlocking side grain is a give away. I got a plank of roughly 70 cm by 19 cm by 2.5 cm from a friend. Busy assembling an endgrain cutting board with some sand yellow wood. The 2 don't glue very well though. Will post a picture if I manage to stick them together. Must say it is looking amazing the yellow and red. http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/african-padauk/

Definately not rosewood. This wood is little bit softer than rosewood and a lot more red. Almost a light beetroot kind of red. From images I have googled, it looks a lot like Rooi Ivoor, but it can't be, because Rooi Ivoor is a lot harder and heavier. Somerhing else that it almost resembles is Cocobolo, but the darker streaks in the grain pattern is not so evident as it is in Cocobolo.

Does anyone know what this beautifull red wood is? It is harder than Kiaat, but not nearly as hard as yellow wood or Rhodesian teak. It has quite difficult interlocking grain, and the endgrain is quite porous.

For ease of application, great finish and durability, it will be difficult to beat a simple wiping varnish finsh. It is a simple mixture of an oil based varnish and paint thinner. Easy to apply without leaving brush marks or bubbles. Please google "wiping varnish".

The price for African rosewood, at the moment is R13 750.00 per cubic metre. I got this from Primewood in Kroonstad. They are importers of African timber. If my maths did not fail me you have 0.25 cubes, that equates to about R3 440.00.

Kiaat coffee table finished today.

Vrystaters going to natal on holday all the time, will make a plan of some sort. Might be worth going on holiday myself for a piece of mahogany or tamboti!

Any one having some logs lying around which can be turned, pun intended, into something beautiful and useful like bowls, candle holders or pepper grinders?

Clock wise from 6'o clock American ash, Tamboti flower pot, Kiaat segmented bowl, cedar plates, white karee candle holder, selection of eggs, two kiaat candle holders, pine honey bowl, rhodesian teak/ sand yellow wood/ rosewood segmented polka dot bowl, american ash bowl with cracks filled with coffee grinds and ca glue, selection of eggs in polka dot bowl (biggest one being tamboti), Rhodesian teak segmented salad bowl.

Clock wise from 6'o clock American ash, Tamboti flower pot, Kiaat segmented bowl, cedar plates, white karee candle holder, selection of eggs, two kiaat candle holders, pine honey bowl, rhodesian teak/ sand yellow wood/ rosewood segmented polka dot bowl, american ash bowl with cracks filled with coffee grinds and ca glue, selection of eggs in polka dot bowl (biggest one being tamboti), Rhodesian teak segmented salad bowl.

Wag ń bietjie natural edged bowls.

Soetdoring, Accacia karoo, also finished using shellac based friction polish.

Rhodesian teak mortar and tamboti pestle set. Finished using French polish friction technique.

A different angle.

Not a lot of turners on the hub? May I post some of my work? These are a siamese set of bluegum natural edged bowls. They came from the same piece of trunk. (Bottom to bottom.) The pith of the trunk was very much off centred and is actually in the smaller of the two bowls!