I've been slowly trying to gather a collection of tools for windsor chair making over the last year or so. This past Father's Day my wife got me the large Lie-Nielsen/Drew Langsner froe. I'm sure it's going to be a great tool, but without something solid and wooden to whack it with it's kind of useless. Time to make a froe club.
A while back, we lost part of a maple tree on the property to a storm. While cleaning up the mess I saved a section with the intent of turning a club and that's what I did last week. I peeled the bark off, (which I should have done earlier; a couple wood worms had gotten to it), found the approximate center, and chucked it up in the spring pole lathe. Took about an hour and a half, but eventually I ended up with what I think will be a nice froe club; heavy, dense, and hard.
It was fun to actually turn something other than a practice piece but I proved to myself again that I really need practice on the spring pole. I guess my technique is just poor because the only thing that I really have any success with is the roughing gouge. Can't get any kind of acceptable results with the skew or the 2" straight chisel. Anyone know a good place to learn turning techniques for a spring pole lathe? I think it's a whole different ball game than a regular powered or even a treadle lathe. Don't get me wrong, the spring pole is a blast to turn on, just wish I could get better results.
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| Ready for a log. |
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| The tools. Ashley Iles carbon steel turning tools from TFWW. |
