Dave Reeks RPT

How to handle a burr

July 19th 2006

Reviewed by Alan Elkins

a hot turning demo

Air conditioning was regrettably absent on this evening when members enjoyed Dave's demonstration on how to get several bowls out of one piece of wood.

His first remark was that you have to look carefully to see how you can maximise the available wood. Both the McNaughton and OneWay systems of coring/wood saving were used and the opinion seems to be that the OneWay is easier to use (less hazardous?) but it is more expensive. Both were impressive and also their ability to stall a 2hp Poolewood lathe. We saw three bowls turned out of one piece of cherry. This was green wood and shavings flew bountifully. It was then going to be processed by boiling in water for two hours then leaving to cool on the floor. The process removes the sap, leaving only the free water. The result is that there will be little distortion, splitting and the timber will be dry in a few weeks. Members found this concept very interesting.

In the second part of the evening we saw how to square up a lopsided burr using a two-prong centre. Taking the prominent corners off using a toolrest with a peg to support the gouge was much easier and even possible one-handed suitable for people having suffered a stroke.

There was prolonged applause for a superb, yet very hot, evening.


*The McNaugton system*		*Three bowls from one blank*

*The peg in the tool rest*		*The OneWay system*