Martin Saban-Smith was our demonstrator for our September meeting
Martin gave a short talk on how he got in to woodturning in 2014 and hasn’t looked back since.
His work is mainly decorative and he has launched his own range of finishing colours and waxes under the name of Hampshire Sheen including the Intrinsic Colour Collection.

Martin’s first project was a crush grind pepper mill.
Starting with a blank of beech he turned it to round between centres. He then mounted a 30mm drill in the tailstock and drilled into the blank to around half its depth. He then swapped the drill for a mill cutter that drilled the recesses at the base simultaneously. This tool has two cutters that can be adjusted to suit the diameter of the holes required. The back collar is adjustable to suit the depth of cut. An expensive tool but useful if you intend to make a lot of these.
This done he used a recess chisel to cut a groove at the back of the recess to take the two plastic lugs on the grind mechanism. Alternatively cut these off and glue the mechanism in place. He then just eased off the sharp edges of the recess and parted off the body at the required finished length leaving the remaining part to make the capstan.
He set up a set of soft jaws in the 4 jaw chuck and mounted the body on these to bore out the body to meet the first drilling. A bit like the channel tunnel!! He then shaped the body following the outline of a template he had made for this pepper mill. Finally it was sanded and finished with a food safe Danish oil. One of his own products.

Now it was time to turn his attention to the capstan. He mounted it in the chuck and turned a spigot to fit in to the body before drilling a small diameter hole part way in to accommodate the mechanism shaft. Then he bored it out to take the insert, also turning a recess at the back of the bore for the lugs. Turning it round in the chuck and gripping the spigot Martin finished the shaping of the top. All that was left to do was to fit the grinding mechanism. Simple design but too chunky for my liking.

Martin’s next project was to show us his colouring method for the outside of a bowl. The wood here was sycamore and he mounted a part turned bowl on a face plate and skimmed the surface to remove previous colouring. It is important to sand it to a very fine finish at this stage. Then he sprayed it black and allowed it to dry before sanding it back leaving only a trace of colour so that the grains are highlited.
Then he started dabbing on random splashes of colour using water based wood stains from his INTRINSIC COLOUR COLLECTION. Using red, yellow and orange to obtain a flame effect when the bowl was completely covered.
To make the colour spread he diluted it with methylated spirits. Each coating was lightly sanded with 400g paper. Then came the waxing using his Hampshire sheen high gloss wax. Each coat was applied quite thick and then melted using a hot air gun.
Martin checked after each application to see how far the wax had penetrated the grain, the softer grain looking shadowy until enough coats had been applied to stop it soaking in. The final finish was to buff it to a very high shine. The bowl was then reversed and hollowed out and sanded to a fine finish

If you didn’t pick up one of his leaflets but want to know more about his finishes his website is www.hampshiresheen.com or you can see him on facebook, youtube or on Instagram.

See you all on the 12th For Mark Sanger's demonstration

Graham