September 2013 Demo

“Goblet Turned and Carved”

By Paul Tiefel

Goblet with a Twist

I grew up around my dad’s woodshop and became a journeyman carpenter when I was 19. Carpentry skills helped pay my way through engineering college which led to a career in the oil and gas industry. I maintained a woodshop over the years but like everyone working and raising a family there was little time to use my tools. About 12 years ago I took a Basic Turning class at Woodcraft taught by John Horn and started woodturning in earnest.

I have always liked a challenge and the “Goblet with a Twist” is certainly that. It combines knowledge that I gained from two guys named Stuart. The first thin stem goblet I turned was in a class taught by Stuart Batty about seven years ago. I learned about the classic techniques for spiral (twist) turning by watching a demo by Stuart Mortimer and then reading his book.

The “Goblet with a Twist” is an intricate project that requires the work to progress in a certain sequence of steps. It takes me about 4 hours to complete a goblet about half of which is sanding time. For the demo I will focus on the turning elements, rough carving and rounding the bines. There won’t be time for sanding except as needed for shaping the bines. Also, to save time I will not show some of the work holding (chucking) changes that I typically use but will explain how these are done in the work flow.