I spent most of today, and in-between choice cuss words, I managed to get this piece turned. Kauri is that stuff from New Zealand that has been buried in the peat for 40,000-50,000 years. It is mined and then specially kiln dried. I have done some inlay work with it, but this is the first I tried to turn something. The outside turned nicely, but the inside? I drilled it slowly with a forsner bit. I then tried to sand it down on the inside, and it kept flaking off, like dry layers on the outside of an onion. I tried the typical steps from coarse, up to 2000 grit. I tried steel wool, i tried forward and backward. I tried a new inner curve scraper. I finally just gave up and called it 'good enough'. As it is now filled with toothpicks, and it is a gift....I will just have to live with it.
As the wood is plain, and it works at the level of somewhere between pine and a stiff balsa wood, I decided I had to make a novelty piece out of it. The bung hole for the miniature 'whiskey barrel' is a stub of a walnut dowel. The wire scorch marks were also tough to do. I had to speed the lathe up to about 750, and it smoked, but it would not lay down a nice burn line.
I also took the added step of making a little scorch mark on the outer rim of the bung hole before putting in the walnut plug. The plug also sits about a half-millimeter above the plane of the barrel wall.
No more Kauri turning for me!
Dave Peterson
As the wood is plain, and it works at the level of somewhere between pine and a stiff balsa wood, I decided I had to make a novelty piece out of it. The bung hole for the miniature 'whiskey barrel' is a stub of a walnut dowel. The wire scorch marks were also tough to do. I had to speed the lathe up to about 750, and it smoked, but it would not lay down a nice burn line.
I also took the added step of making a little scorch mark on the outer rim of the bung hole before putting in the walnut plug. The plug also sits about a half-millimeter above the plane of the barrel wall.
No more Kauri turning for me!
Dave Peterson
