To Everything, Turn…Turn…Turn

I was at Lee Valley (Again) the other day and found a bin of 4 X 4 X 12 blanks of Maple.  Apparently they are offcuts from a Baseball Bat manufacturer… or something.  Lee Valley is selling these for $1 each.  A great deal for “practice” wood.  Had my first mishap with the lathe that night.  My gouge caught one of these Maple blanks and it “exploded” on me.  I guess I can be pretty aggressive sometimes.

At any rate, the next night I chucked up another of these blanks and turned a wooden handle that I intend to put on my 10 inch bastard file.  The Maple is very easy to turn, but it is not  highly figured wood, so would not make for a nice display item, but as work tool handles go, I was pretty pleased with it.