The Woodworker & Woodturner – September 2019

NEXT MONTH

Dave turns a tasty coat rack

in yew laced with ebony

70 The Woodworker & Good Woodworking September 2019 http://www.getwoodworking.com

TURNING The Engineer’s Workshop – all that JAZ!

piece of the composite was hanging off. I had
two options: one was to stick it down with CA
adhesive; the other was to cut the piece off.
It may be that it would have stuck down
satisfactorily, but I decided to cut it off
and turn the bowl a couple of mil’ thinner.
This was the only occasion on which I had
a problem with the JAZ delaminating. Otherwise
it was fine, and you can see that the shavings
it produced are the same as when you’re turning
a tight-grained timber. As long as I kept the bevel
rubbing, I found I got shavings and plenty of them!

Sanding & finishing
Once all the turning was completed, I again used
power sanding to finish the inside of the bowl.
For those of you who have never power sanded,
it’s quite simple. The sanding discs, which can
be bought from a variety of suppliers, are 50mm
in diameter and the sanding pads themselves –
which cover the range of sanding grades from

9 I found that the best and quickest way to achieve

a good finish on JAZ was by power sanding

8 Correct use of the gouge will produce loads
of shavings, just like a close-grained timber

10 Reverse the bowl into the jaws and turn the

spigot into a foot

coarse to very fine – are held on the discs with

hook-and-loop. As long as you work through the

sequence of grades, you’ll get an excellent finish.

I started with 120 grit, which flattened the

surface very quickly, and worked all the way

down to 600 grit, which left a very satisfactory

finish. Just one coat of sanding sealer did the job,

followed by a rubbing back with ‘0000’ gauge

wire wool when it was dry. All that was needed

then was a light coat of polish.

If you put on too much polish, you run the

risk of having the bowl end up looking like a

ploughed field, and the only way to overcome

this is to stop the lathe and use ‘0000’ gauge

wire wool to remove the excess polish, before

buffing with a soft cloth.

Will turners take to JAZ and similar offerings
as a substitute for the real thing?