Nick Arnull RPT

Ebonising and decorating

October 17th 2007

Reviewed by Photos only

Nick Arnull

The demonstrator for the October meeting was Nick Arnull whose work has been featured in several recent editions of Woodturning Magazine.
Nick announced that the objective of his demonstration was to make a shallow bowl with a textured rim. He then mounted an acacia blank on the lathe. The blank was about 10 inches diameter and 2 inches thick. After truing, the face of the blank was shaped as the outside of a shallow ogee bowl with a wide rim and a dovetailed spigot for later re-chucking. To get a fine finish Nick preferred a ¼ inch bowl gouge and ½ inch round skew chisel used in scraper mode. Sanding was taken to 400 grit. The last was used on a rotating disk. When smoothed, Chestnut acrylic sanding sealer was applied followed by a very slight de-nibbing. Next came an ebonising coat using a matt black car spray. Drying was helped with a hair dryer.
Answering a question on tool sharpening Nick recommended the use of grinding jigs and said that he used an 80-grit aloxite wheel.
After tea –break the blank was remounted and turned to a shallow bowl with a flat rim about two and a half inches wide. The whole surface was then smoothed, sealed and lightly de-nibbed, after which the rim was sprayed black. When dry the rim paint was cut to defined edges and any overspray removed. To decorate the rim Nick drilled a number of shallow holes randomly but evenly into the rim using two drill sizes. This gave what someone described as a starry sky pattern. Note that the earlier sealing prevented the black paint soaking into the wood and making woolly edges to the decoration.
Time was up, so that concluded the demonstration. Nick explained that the surfaces would later be re-sealed and finished.
A round of applause thanked him for the evening.


*Finishing the bowl outside*		*Outside ebonised*

*Finishing the inside centre*		*Decorating (drilling) the rim*