Tom Crabb traveled from Richmond, Virginia to be our demonstrator for April. He retired as a Civil Engineer in 1990 and became a full time turner. His signature is turning "CUBES ON THE BIAS". I wondered what that meant and at the meeting I learned that the grain is about a 45-degree angle to the axis of the lathe. He cuts a blank approximately square and then grinds off two opposite corners of the cube so that the drive spur and tailpiece have a place to rest. He mostly uses green wood but showed several examples of dry wood turned" Cubes on the Bias".

When asked how he came up with the idea for this method of turning he answered that it was a slow day at work and he started dreaming about what might happen. He then printed out a cube on the computer and formed it into a paper mock cube. He then played with this to see what might happen. From this came his signature "CUBE on the BIAS". He mostly uses green wood that he has prepared using a chain saw and his bandsaw if the cube is small enough to fit into his bandsaw.

He used a cube blank he had already prepared with the corners ground off. The sides were about 8.75". He whacked in the drive spur and then placed it in the lathe bringing up the tailpiece. The cube has eight points or tips. As mounted the cube had six points that would be present after using the two points for the lathe mount and drive. He turns the final piece to about a ¼" wall thickness to prevent or at least reduce cracking of the green wood as it dries.

He started very slowly from the tail end turning up to the points at the head or drive end. This removed the three points near the tail end. If the tool bounces too much just hold it still until it stops bouncing. At this stage use very slow and light cuts. You are cutting a lot of air. He used a 1/2" bowl gouge with essentially the factory grind. He cut both up and down hill until both edges of the gouge needed sharpening. A tenon was turned on the bottom end and then it was reversed and mounted in a chuck. He brought up the tailpiece and then started to hog out the inside of the bowl. He used both a boring bar and a bowl gouge. As he approached the correct thickness he then slides off the tail stock and continued to finish the inside of the bowl to the ¼" thickness. He would sand to 180 or 220 grit. The square edges of the bowl were finished by hand using sandpaper being careful not to round over the edges. He then would slightly break the edge also by hand. Tom did not finish any of the demo pieces during his day with us because of time. If he were to finish he would have sanded the inside then reverse turn the base and sand the complete outside. It would then be placed in a paper bag for a week to ten days before re-sanding and finishing. He uses a poly spray finish.

Tom then turned another square cube but much smaller with a side dimension of about 5". This blank looked like the first but smaller but he would now use a slightly different technique. He would turn the tail end up to the first set of tips or points. The tail end would ultimately become the bowl inside of the finished piece and form the three feet to set it on. He then would carefully turn the area between the points. This ultimately results in a shape looking like two bowls with the bowl openings both facing out. He turned a tenon on the tail end for later use in a chuck. He used a boring bar as well as the bowl gouge to hog out the inside of the bowl. This was all that could be turned in the bowl inside because of the tenon. He turned up to the points until it was the shape desired for a bowl outside. He then turned the area between the points. This required a special tool that was sharpened to a long point. He made this tool from a cheap ½" scraper by grinding it to a point. He carefully cleared out the wood making the outside shapes of the two bowls. At the final cut both edges were cutting at the same time. Where the sharp point further up the bowl edge meets the bowl he used a 3/8" scraper to form a smooth transition. He then would shape the outside of the drive end of the bowl. He reversed the blank and mounted it in a chuck bringing up the tailstock for support and proceeding to hog out the inside of the bowl to the ¼" wall thickness. One of the problems he had was that the short bed lathe has no place to lay your tools. After reaching the needed ¼" wall thickness, if he were finishing the piece, he would sand the piece up to about 180 or 220 grit papers. He also needed to hand sand the flat edges from the cube. He then reverse turned to remove the tenon. Now the piece would be place into a paper bag for about a week to 10 days before the 2nd sanding and the finishing.

The resulting piece looks like two bowls with three points on the outside edges of the bowls that were connected at their bowl ends. Of course it was a solid piece of wood. The foot end was turned smaller than the bowl end. A very nice turning, with a unique foot using three points to set it on. It can be used as a bowl very nicely.

Tom then switched to a cylinder blank. This blank was about 6" dia. and 6" long. He had ground off places for the head and tailpieces but in this case because of the round stock had to use a square to find the opposite places. After whacking in the drive spur he mounted in the lathe just as before. Again starting slowly he started to form up to the round side of the piece. Since this had no point to aim for it was the choice of the turner how far to make the cuts. This piece looked similar to the previous piece with two bowls with the open ends facing out. It required the same turning technique with the special scraper to determine the outside bowl surfaces. Since the tail end only had two points the third tip must be turned from the tenon. This was the last thing to do and was done by reverse turning mounting on a round form mounted in the chuck. He uses bubble wrap to isolate the wooden bowl from the form. The tailstock was offset toward the outer edge of the base away from the two feet and the extra foot was shaped to about ½"diameter tapered up to the bowl. Because the turning was offset, he could not turn this down to the inside of the bowl completely. This would require careful hand cutting with chisels and gouges and then hand sanding. The length of this foot was determined by setting on a flat surface and marking how much to cut off. At home he would use a handsaw and then a stationary belt sander.

The last demo was also using a cylinder blank but with the bark still in place to give a natural edge bowl then finishing as the previous piece. All of the techniques were the same as the previous demos except for the use of a bark natural edge. He would use CA glue as he approached the bark edge as it got close to the ¼" thickness near where the bark would start to tear out, putting it on the cambium layer. This also required the turning of an off center foot and the hand finishing of the bowl bottom and foot.

Tom Crabb presented a full day of creative turning and finished with the hope that many of those attending would try his techniques. A day well spent, as always.

--Carlos Kennedy

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