So, I managed to get hold of some unwanted Hemlock stair parts and with the banister rails came the infill strips – these are the lengths of wood that are cut to space out the spindles. My initial thought was that they would be too thin to do anything with but then an idea. Make a laminated hemlock bowl.
A selection of the infill pieces were cut to various lengths and glued together to form a circular blank that was about 50mm thick. In addition to the blank, some other pieces where glued to form a base for the bowl.
The wood turned quite nicely but it was easy to roughen the surface if care wasn’t taken or there was too much pressure on the wood via the tools. Seemed quite a soft wood to turn – sharp tools essential.
This is what the bowl looked like while still on the lathe prior to finishing off with some sand paper.
After some gentle finishing and some coats of home brewed bees wax the end result. This was the first of a batch of these bowls and I subsequently tried differing layouts for the Hemlock strips.
There are a few of these on sale via my Etsy shop