It’s interesting to see what can be made using a lathe. Beyond making simple table legs, users have created everything from intricately designed pens to highly detailed jewelry using a myriad of materials.
Wood, one of the more versatile materials, can be combined and manipulated with other types to create some truly stunning pieces such as Grady Hillhouse’s pair of spoons, which he crafted almost entirely on his lathe.
Hillhouse began his creation by sandwiching a piece of brightly colored paduak between two pieces of walnut, which he then offset on his lathe for multi-axis turning in order to achieve a distinct pattern for his spoons.
Like carving out table legs, he then began cutting away the excess wood to form the base for the dinnerware (or breakfast/lunch-ware?).
Once the basic form was achieved, he then used a band saw to cut the leg in half and chucked (using a special clamp) each half back into the lathe to mill away the excess wood to form the actual scoops.
After all was said and done, they were then refined even further using sandpaper to smooth out any remaining rough edges and splinters along with applying some sealer. The end result is pretty great and quite striking considering this was Grady’s first attempt at milling out eating utensils using a lathe.
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