Rebec carving & curving Spurtles

Been doing some more carving on the Rebec.


I've been discovering carving chisels that I have had for 30 years and hardly ever used. I bought these with my student tool grant when I was studying for my B.A.(hons) in Fine Art at Hornsey School of Art.

I think I got a set of 12 Henry Taylor "Acorn Brand" carving tools for 30 quid !




Spoke shaved back . . . some friends came over yesterday and Mike had one of those Flexcut drawknives - quite thin, flexible and excellent for this type of work.
I think I'll get one.
(It has to go to 1/8" - 1/4" thick eventually)









Look how bent that spurtle went that I made in the video the other day -
You couldn't have planned it if you'd wanted to . . .

Bow lathe video

Any comments would be appreciated

Bow lathe

A bow lathe turner in Marrakesh - photo taken by my friend Daniel Melman from Israel.
Hopefully the video is uploading to YouTube at this moment . . .

We have laughs and tears actually shooting these films. Then we quite like clipping and cutting and pasting and twiddling the bits into something that looks reasonable and isn't too long.

We're thinking of developing these films, making them longer and more informative . . .

Prince Harry & Lois, Lady Bodger at RNS

This is Prince Harry's body double, Ben Orford, trying to trim his toenails on my bow lathe . . .





The real Prince Harry having a go on Lois' lathe - can you imagine having your first lesson on a pole lathe under the glare of all those flashlights ?

More pictures coming when I've had a chance to check them out . . .


Here's a couple of Robins learning to use the bow lathe . . .

any captions for this shot of Rob Wood . . . ?

or me ??

We had a great time at the Royal Norfolk Show, (apparently it's the biggest and most important country show in the Land) - right up to the end even when it poured with rain all the way home and we had to unload the truck in the heavy rain late at night !!
We have spent the day recovering.

We met lots of friends, old friends, new friends and had a good chinwag with other like-minded and interesting folk.

There was a tantalising atmosphere pervading our Woodland Craft glade. When leaving my fellow artisans and going into the main showground for water I felt like I had been dropped into Oxford Street on a mad, Saturday afternoon !

* * *Barefoot bow lathe turning film * * *
COMING SOON

Watch this space . . .

Norfolk Show

We will be demonstrating at The Royal Norfolk Show on Wednesday & Thursday. There is a Woodland Craft area with the hurdle makers, basket makers, willow weavers, coracle makers, bodgers etc working in a sylvan setting.
Looks like a really great show but probably too much to see in a day !

Melford Hall

This show had a strange effect on me.

A great location in a lovely part of the country. BUT the weather was against us - Saturday it rained and drizzled - I didn't feel like being there and today was extremely windy. I didn't feel like doing much turning - most of the punters were food monsters and nearly all the concessions were just behind us . . .

However - I did manage to put a stool together and managed to rough out the rebec.

Axing
Adzing

As far as it goes

I'll dry it out slowly and gradually refine it - I'll put up more pics as it takes shape.

We did meet a local turner, Martin Hafner, who came along both days and brought a gorgeous screw-top box today to show us - I'd love to have a go at screw threading on the pole lathe !

Rebec

I made a template for the shape of a Rebec that I have a penchant to make. Also sorted out some timber for it - Laburnum for the fingerboard, pegs, tailpiece and bridge and half a 6" sycamore log about 20" long which I'll carve into a giant spoon shape for the body and neck. Haven't got anything for the top yet - I suppose I'll have to buy a piece of thin Spruce from somewhere.

I'll take some photos tomorrow at Long Melford Midsummer Craft & Country Show where we'll be this weekend . . .


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