February 2024 Meeting

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The February meeting of the CraobhEo 2023/24 year took place on the 15th February in the CraobhEo Centre in Aghamore.

Our demonstrator for the evening was Eoin Barry from the Limerick Chapter.

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Eoin’s project for the evening was a captive ring goblet or traditional wedding goblet as it’s known as well.

Start by finding a fresh tree branch with good bark and the pith offcentre and use this as your blank. Mount between centres, it will be slightly offcentre. Round up leaving bark on for cup and base and turn spigot for holding in chuck later.

First step is to cut three rings but only two will be required. Three tools are used, one for cutting in and the other two for cutting the rings from left and right sides. The rings are 3 mm and allow 15 mm between them. Mark up the prepared blank in this way. Remove excess each side of the ring blanks to depth of 8mm. Mark centre of each ring blank with a pencil. Using the ring cutting tools, start cutting in from the first side of each ring blank up to the pencil mark and then repeat for the other side without going right through. Sand the still attached rings at this point before parting the rings off. Clean up the shaft of the goblet and attach sandpaper using insulation tape. Sand the underside of the rings on the sandpaper. Remove sandpaper and discard one of the rings now (it was a spare in case one broke) as you only need two. Secure the rings away from where you are working at all stages from now on.

The cup itself is now turned starting with the outside and leaving the bark on the rim. Clean up bark. Mount in the chuck and prepare to hollow out the cup. First cut into the centre with small spindle gouge. Use Hope hollower to hollow out as much as possible as this is good for working in endgrain. Then use a small bowl gouge for the finishing cuts. Sand and apply your preferred finish to the cup. Bring up the tailstock for support to the cup from this point on using a paper towel folded into the cup.

Next turn the stem starting from cup end and sanding and applying finish as you go. Proceed an inch at a time and no going back until you come to the base.

Finally the base is turned. Leave the same amount of bark as the cup rim. Turn inside curve first and then the detail at the bottom of the stem. Sand and apply finish. Part off the goblet with parting tool going straight in initially but then hollowing out so the underside is concave. Sand and apply you finish.

Thank to Eoin for making the long journey from Limerick to be with us. We enjoyed a very interesting demo using readily available wood that will challenge each one of us to take on. The skill you showed in turning those rings might be something that we will have to work on though, although the ring tools helped. Well done and see you soon again.