Losing my Cherry

It's been a while since I blogged, as I was reminded on a recent trip back up to God's Own City (of Manchester). (Thanks Mark!) Laziness isn't the reason though - it's been more a case of summer, and Jeni taking up golf on her retirement at the beginning of May. Playing around (" a round") (or a few) with her is more than a little pressing on my time, and hence wood projects have taken something of a back seat through the summer, restricted to the odd small commission. My golf handicap, on the other hand, has stabilised nicely, even if my sense of style isn't improving!

I was thus excited to receive a commission this week to turn a new finial, to replace a rotting old one on a porch. The owner had taken a week off work to paint, and discovered the problem on getting his brushes out.

Sourcing timber proved rather problematic for once. It needed around 550mm length and a chunky 150mm square profile, and neither of my two timber suppliers could readily find a suitable piece in their offcuts store. The best I could find was a 2m long piece of sycamore priced at £120, which was far too expensive for the client.

But wait! At the back of my workshop I've been seasoning most of a big old cherry tree for the last 18 months, felled with an old colleague in her garden in Didcot. I've been waiting to get a chance to cut into some of it and discover whether it's ready for turning. Here was my opportunity. Pulled out a nice long piece which looked like it might do the trick.....

Having trimmed it to length and taken various slices off in an attempt to stabilise it on the lathe (and stop the whole unit taking a walk across the workshop) I got to work. Quite a feat turning a bent piece of cherry to round, and lost a lot of 'waste' in the process, but not my limbs or head, thankfully, and it was soon looking like a finial.

Just a few more cuts....

It turns out (see what I did there?) that my Didcot Cherry is rather lovely to work with, and I ended up with a pleasing copy for my client.

A decent match, considering the manual and freehand nature of woodturning.

Such a lovely-looking piece of wood. As the client said on collecting it, a great shame he's going to paint it. But a secure and matching porch once it's installed later. And I now know that the tree in the corner of my workshop is turnable, so I'll soon be losing my (whole) cherry ;-)