Mike Darlow's Woodturning Series: Useful Woodturning Projects. Mike Darlow

melt it in an old saucepan on the hob or ring of a domestic stove. Lead vapor is poisonous, so do this in a very well ventilated location or, better, outdoors. Also, unless the wood is fully seasoned, when you pour molten lead into the leading hole, you’re likely to get a dangerous Romancandle-like eruption of molten lead droplets.

      For my sets I now therefore prefer to lead with a “mortar” of lead shot (obtainable from gun smiths) and cross-linked PVA, epoxy resin, or another suitable glue with gap-filling ability. After inverting the men in a rack (figure 4.13), and coating the wall of a hole with the glue, I then press the mortar into the leading hole, taking care that it doesn’t stand proud of the bottom (figure 4.14).

Figure 4.13 A rack to hold inverted chessmen for leading.

Figure 4.14 Leading with lead shot and cross-linked PVA glue. The lead is being ladled into the bored holes with a teaspoon which has been squashed in a vice to form a spout. I do the leading over a shallow tray to contain any spilled lead shot.

4.6 LEATHERING

      Leaded sets are usually leathered with thin leather (best), felt or baize. You can punch out the disks of material— punches (figure 4.15) are available in a wide range of diameters, but are expensive to buy. I instead prefer to turn the disks as shown in figures 4.16 and 4.17. I then glue the disks onto the men’s bottoms with PVA.

Figure 4.15 Leather punches.

Figure 4.16 Chucking squares of thin leather between two wooden mandrels whose adjacent free ends have been turned to the required finished diameter of the leather disks. One of the adjacent mandrel faces is slightly concave so that the leather squares are held securely at their intended diameter.

Figure 4.17 Turning the leather squares to their finished diameter. So as to cut with high side rake I’m using the cutting edge at the shoulder of a detail gouge.