2.4.2 Handles for small turning tools
I prefer that my small-nosed turning tools not be appreciably shorter than those used for general turning, and that their handles be a little slimmer than usual (figure 2.14). I prefer wooden handles to metal because my workshop is cold in the winter. Also I don’t like my handle surfaces to be smooth or highly polished because I then have to grip them more tightly which inhibits easy manipulation. Therefore if I’m “improving” a manufacturer’s handle, even if I haven’t appreciably slimmed it, I produce the finished surface using a small roughing gouge presented without side rake. I then don’t sand this surface.
Figure 2.14 Four small-nosed tools. The two paler handles have been turned down and left unsanded, my current preference.
The design of the tool rack in which the handle ends are supported on a dowel was shown in my first woodturning book The Practice of Woodturning.2
2.4.3 Callipers
Figure 2.15 shows three fixed-diameter gauges, and a vernier calliper which you’ll find especially useful for smaller items which have several different diameters which you want to calliper.
Figure 2.15 A vernier calliper and three fixed-diameter gauges.
Look for a brand of vernier calliper which has a large and strong locking knob. Mine has both imperial and metric rulings.
I’ve filed the inside corners of the calliper’s and gauges’ jaws round so that the jaws don’t grab as the desired diameter is achieved.
2.5 ENDNOTES
1. Lacer, Alan and Wright, Jeryl. “Does Honing Pay Off?”. pp. 58–63. Sharpening Turning Tools. St Paul: American Association of Woodturners, 2014.
2. Darlow, Mike. The Practice of Woodturning. Sydney: The Melaleuca Press, 1985, p. 40.
Chapter 3
A BACKSCRATCHER
I hope that readers will accept that the subject of this project chapter does not imply that the personal hygiene or domestic cleanliness of readers is in any way deficient.
Design
The backscratcher design pictured in figures 3.1 and 3.2 has two desirable features:
1. As demonstrated in figure 3.3, the itch can be relieved when the person is dressed because the backscratcher’s head is compact, and its flattened side won’t catch on clothing. Figure 3.2 shows an optional modification which may make the implement easier to slide down a clothed back.
2. The “scratchiness” can be varied according to how much you round the head’s rib edges by sanding.
Figure 3.1 The backscratcher.
Making
This back scratcher is a simple spindle turning. A strong, fine-grained hardwood is ideal. I used silver ash, which can be either of the two Australian species Flindersia bourjotiana and Flindersia schottiana. (The genus name recalls Matthew Flinders whose chess set is featured in chapter 5.)
Figure 3.2 The pencil gauge for the backscratcher. One improvement, shown dashed, might be to include a nose at the end of the head so that the head will more easily slide inside one’s clothing. Instead of having a straight taper, the shaft will look better if it is slightly swollen (has entasis like the shaft of a classical column).
Figure 3.3 The backscratcher in use.
Chapter 4
MAKING CHESSMEN
This chapter is a general introduction to making chessmen. Chapters 5 and 6 then cover the background, design and making of particular chess sets, all but two of which do not appear in my 2004 book Turned Chessmen, later retitled in the United States as Woodturning Chessmen.
Making a chess set involves:
• designing the pieces, deciding the chucking, and preparing the gauges
• selecting the woods and preparing the individual workpieces for turning
• turning, including any boring. Sourcing the small woodturning tools which you may need is discussed in this book’s chapter 2.
It can also involve:
• polishing
• installing the leading
• leathering.
4.1 CHUCKING WORKPIECES FOR LEADED CHESSMEN
Oxford dictionaries define a chuck as a ‘holding device, typically one with jaws which “move radially in and out”’. In woodturning a wider definition has long been the norm. Thus cupchucks and screwchucks which don’t have any moving parts; and drive centers, dead and live tail centers, and faceplates are also regarded as chucks. Therefore workpieces held between centers in a woodturning lathe and those fixed onto a headstock spindle nose using some form of chuck which may not have any moveable jaws can be said to be chucked.
Chessmen can be separated into leaded and unleaded. Leaded men are heavier, more stable, and more satisfying to play with, but many chess set designs don’t have sufficiently bulky bottom ends to accept leading. The lead is typically housed in an axial hole bored into the bottom of the man. This hole is best bored before the man is finish-turned—were the leading hole bored after finish-turning the hole is unlikely to be truly axial and the man’s surface would probably be damaged by being gripped.
Turned Chessmen shows twelve chucking methods on pages 132 and 133. Its method J screwchuck is shown in figure 4.1 below. I have recently developed the improved chucking method shown in figures 4.2 to 4.4.